

Gass. 



Book 



^ 



^ ■»♦ ♦ » 

LIVES 

OF THE 

CIIIEP FATHERS OE NEW ENGLAND. 

The Lord our God Toe -with us, as he was with our fa- 
thers : let him not leave us, nor forsake us. 

1 Kings 8: 67. 

VOL. IV. 



THE LIFE 



OF 



THOMAS SHEPARD. 



BY JOHN A. ALBRO. 



Written for the Massachusetts Sabbath School Society, a7id 
approved by the Committee of Publication. 




BOSTON: 

MASSACHUSETTS SABBATH SCHOOL SOCIETV, 

Depository, No. 13 Cornhill. 

1847. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1847, 

By CHRISTOPHER C. DEAN, 
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts, 



PREFACE. 



The materials for the ensuing Life of Thomas 
Shepard, have been gathered from his own writings, 
and from all accessible cotemporaneous sources. Be- 
sides his printed works, which exhibit his views of 
religion and the church, and aid us in forming a 
judgment respecting his mind and character, Mr. 
Shepard left in MSS. an Autobiography, containing 
brief notices of the principal events in his personal 
and domestic history, v.^hich was first published to the 
world by Rev. Nehemiah Adams, in 1832, and more 
recently by Rev. Mr. Young, in " The Chronicles of 
Massachusetts." The Life of Shepard, as it is called, 
in Mather's Magnalia, the only one that has ever 
been written, is but little more than an abridgment 
of this Autobiography, (the third person being used 
instead of the first,) with a few quaint, general obser- 
vations interspersed, which, together, constitute but a 
meagre and unsatisfactory view of the character and 
influence of this eminent man. In the present work, 
Mr. Shepard's account of himself has, of course, been 
relied on, as far as it goes, for facts and dates ; but a 
vast amount of matter, essential to the illustration of 
his labors, and to a just view of his position in New 
England, has been drawn from other sources. Sev- 
1# 



VI PREFACE 

eral interesting MSS. Letters, never before published, 
which throw much light upon Mr. Shepard's domestic 
and public life, have, by the permission of Mr. Felt, the 
accomplished Librarian of the Mass. Historical Society, 
been kindly transcribed for the Author by Mr. David 
Pulsifer, the only man, it is believed, who could have 
deciphered the chirography in which they have been 
locked up for more than two hundred years. The 
work is, doubtless, very imperfect, notwithstanding all 
the pains which have been taken to render it com- 
plete ; but, as a sincere tribute to the memory of one 
of New England's best as well as chief Fathers, and 
an attempt to vindicate the principles of those men to 
whom we owe our civil and religious liberty, it is 
commended to the children of the Puritans, in the 
hope that it may be regarded as not entirely destitute 
of interest, and contribute somewhat to the success of 
the cause in which we are engaged. 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPAllI). 



CHAPTER I. 



The shield of failh. General character and different classes of early N. 
E. ministers. Mr. Shepard one of the first class. Misbirth. Wil- 
liam Shepard. A mother's influence. Sent to reside with his grand 
parents. Removed to Adlhrop. Whitsun-Ales. Returns home. 
Changes in the family. Unkind Step-mother. Welch schoolmas- 
ter. Death of his father. Education neglected by his Mother-in- 
law. His brother John offers to educate him. Goes to a new school. 
Diligence in study. Fitted for college. 

Virgil, in the eighth Book of the iEneid, tells 
us that the shield which Vulcan, at the request 
of Venus, made for jEneas, contained in sixteen 
compartments, or pictures, a prophetic represent- 
ation of the Roman history from the birth of 
Ascanius to the battle of Actium. 

" The brethren first a glorious shield prepare, 
Capacious of the whole Rutulian war. 
Some, Orb in Orb, the blazing buckler frame, 
Some with huge bellows rouse the roaring flame : 

****** 
With joy the weighty spear the prince beheld ; 
But most admired the huge mysterious shield; 
For there had Vulcan, skill'd in times to come. 



8 LIFE OF THOi'^IAS SHEPARD. 

Displayed the triumphs of immortal Rome ; 
Tiiere all the Julian line the god had wrought, 
And cliarged the gold with battles yet unfought." * 

A device which must have been as terrible to 
the enemies of the Trojan hero, as it was en- 
couranfinnf to the bearer. 

What Virg-il here presents as a beautiful poet- 
ic idea, the Redeemer of the church lias actual- 
ly realized for us. We have the shield of faith, 
wherewith to quench all the fiery darts of the 
wicked, emblazoned with ihc mighty history, 
past and prospective, of his stupendous victories. 
On one part of its flaming disc, we see the story 
of the ancient dispensation ; written for the ad- 
monition and encouragement of those who have 
inherited " the covenants, and the promises, and 
the service of God : " on another portion, there 
appears the memorable history of our own New 
England Patriarchs, from the birth of Puritan- 
ism to the permanent and quiet settlement of a 
pure church in this land, exhibiting the trials, 
sufferings, conflicts, and triumphs of those christ- 



* Ingentemclypeam informunt, unum omnia contra 

TelaLatinorum, septenosque orbibus orbes 

Impediunt. 

lilic res Italaa, Romanorumque triumphos 

liaud vatuni ignarus, venluriqno inscias aevi, 

Feceral ignipolens : illic genua onine fulurffi 

Stirpis ab Ascanio, pugnataque in ordine beila. 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 9 



ian heroes who turned this wilderness into a 
fruitful field; a history which should be kept in 
perpetual remembrance, and constantly held 
forth to the world for the purpose of animating 
their and our posterity in the labors and conflicts 
that are before us."^ 

The ministers and christians by whom New 
England was planted, as one of our early histo- 
rians has remarked, were a chosen company of 
men, drawn from nearly all the counties of Eng- 
land, not by any human contrivance, but by a 
peculiar work of God upon their spirits, inspir- 
ing them as one man to retire into the wilderness, 
they knew not where, and to suffer in that wilder- 
ness they knew not what, for the glory of God, 
and for the good of their children.! " God sift- 
ed three nations," says Stoughton, " that he 
might bring choice wheat into this wilderness." 

These early ministers of New England, are 
divided by Mather, into three classes ; 1. Those 
who were ordained and in the actual exercise of 
the ministry when they left England ; and were 
the first to preach the gospel, and to establish 
churches according to the scriptural model in 
this country. 2. Young scholars, who came 
over from England with their parents and friends, 



* See Letters on the Puritans, by J. B. Williams, 
t Magnalia, B. III. 



10 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

and completed their education, — already begun 
at home, — in this country, before the collejire was 
in a condition to bestow its honors. 3. Those 
who came over to New England after the re- 
establishment of Episcopacy in the mother coun- 
try, and the revival of that persecution which 
was designed as James I. declared, to force the 
Puritans to conform, or to " harry them out of 
the kingdom." 

To these, Mather adds a fourth class, which 
he calls, fitly enough, the " Anomalies of New 
England," that is, a few ministers from other 
parts of the world, who proved either so errone- 
ous in their principles, or so scandalous in their 
lives, or so hostile to the order of the churches, 
that they cannot be classed among our " worthies," 
and deserve no honorable notice from us."^ 

Mr. Shepard, whose life we here attempt to 
delineate, belonged to the first class of ministers, 
who were instrumental in laying the foundation, 
and in settling the order of the first churches in 
Massachusetts : and although his humility ever 
constrained him to take the lowest place, yet in 
learning, talents, piety and influence, he was not 
a whit behind the " very chiefcst of the apostles 
of Congregationalism, in the New world. > He 



♦ Magnalia, B. III. 



LIFE 



OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 11 



was one of those " wise master builders "—few 
in number, but great in all that constitutes true 
excellence,— to whom we owe whatever of sim- 
plicity, strength, or solidity belongs to our eccle- 
siastical system, and, we may add, to our civil 
^state J His name may not be so often pronounced 
"in discourse respecting the original constitution 
of our churches, as that of John Cotton, who 
has been called, and not improperly, the " Fa- 
ther of Congregationalism " in New England ; 
but the part he acted, and the influence he ex- 
erted in fashioning these churches according to 
the " pattern shewed in the mount," entitled him 
to equal honor. Not inferior to Norton, Hooker, 
or Davenport, in intellectual strength and logical 
acuteness, he perhaps excelled them all in that 
fine, beautiful, practical spirit, which was at that 
time more needed than even genius, and in con- 
templating which, we become insensible to the 
greatness of his talents and the extent of his 
learning. Although he was a prominent and an 
efficient actor in scenes of controversy and pub- 
lic disorder, which stirred up all the fountains of 
bitterness, such were his candor and tenderness, 
that the odium of persecution was never attached 
to his memory; and while subject to like passions, 
and exposed to the same temptations as other 
men, his reputation has descended to us without 



12 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

a blot from the hand of friend or foe. It is not 
too much, therefore, to say, that Mr. Shepard 
was a man whom Massachusetts and New Eng- 
land ought to hold in profound respect ; and 
his life, if it receives any thing like justice 
from his biographer, will be read with interest 
and profit by all classes of the community. 

/ Thomas Shepard was born at Towcester, near 
Northampton, ; in Northamptonshire, England, 
on the fifth day of November 1605. His own 
statement, in his Autobiography, is, that he 
was born *' in the year of Christ 1604, upon 
the fifth day of November, called the Powder 
Treason day, and at that very hour of the 
day wherein the Parliament should have been 
blown up by popish priests ;" which induced his 
father to give him this name, Thomas, " because, 
he said, I would hardly believe (an allusion to 
the skepticism of the apostle Thomas) that ever 
any such wickedness should be attempted hy- 
men against so religious and good a Parliament." 
As it is certain that the famous Powder Plot was 
contrived, if contrived at all, in 1605, and was to 
have been executed on the fifth day of November, 
we are obliged to place Mr. Shepard's birth in 
this year, and on this day, notwithstanding the 
contradictory date with which he begins his ac- 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 13 

count of himself; for it is more likely that he 
should have forgotten, at the moment of writing, 
the exact date of the Powder Plot, than the fact, — 
so indissolubly associated with his name, — that 
according- to the family record and tradition he 
was born at the very hour when, the Parliament 
was to have been blown up by gunpowder. 

The father of the subject of this memoir, 
William Shepard, was born in Fossecut, a small 
town near Towcester. He was bred to the busi- 
ness of a grocer by a Mr. Bland, whose daugh- 
ter he married, and by whom he had nine chil- 
dren; three sons, John, William, and Thomas; 
and six daughters, Ann, Margaret, Mary, Eliza- 
beth, Hester, and Sarah. He seems to have 
been a wise, prudent, and peace-loving man ; 
and, towards the close of his life, very prosperous 
in his business. That he was also a godly man, in 
the sense in which the Puritans used that phrase, 
appears from the fact that he removed to Banbury, 
in Oxfordshire, for the sole purpose of enjoying 
the light of an evangelical and effective minis- 
try, a blessing, which, it seems, could not be had 
at Towcester. A worldly man, or a mere formal- 
ist in religion, w^as not likely to sacrifice his 
temporal interests in order to promote the wel- 
fare of his soul, nor leave a quiet and respecta- 
ble establishment, like the English church, for 

VOL. IV. 2 



14 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEFARD. 

such preaching as was at that time heard from 
Puritan pulpits. 

In the early training and ultimate develop- 
ment and formation of a man's mind, the charac- 
ter and influence of his mother are of preemi- 
nent importance. The seed that is to germinate 
and bear fruit in mature life, is ordinarily plant- 
ed by the maternal hand during the first j^ears 
of childhood. The influence which is to sur- 
round the growing intellect like an atmosphere, 
and act upon it at every stage of its progress, 
flows most frequently from the heart near which 
the young immortal has been nourished ; and 
happy is the child who can remember nothing 
earlier than those looks, tones, prayers, and tears, 
which are the natural expressions of maternal 
piety. They can never be forgotten ; and amidst 
the most powerful temptations, and the wildest 
conflicts of passion, they throng around the 
soul with warning and beseeching voice, to with- 
draw it from danger, or to awaken it to repent- 
ance. Augustine acknowledged that he owed 
his conversion, under God, to the tears and 
prayers of his mother ; and Cecil says that he 
should have been an infidel if it had not been 
for the quiet, but perpetual influence of her 
whom he loved above all other beings. Mr. 
Shepard was blessed with a pious mother. She 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 15 

was a woman of a tender and afTectionate dispo- 
sition, and " much afflicted in conscience, some- 
times even unto distraction," but she was " sweet- 
ly recovered," and passed her latter days in the 
enjoyment of mental serenity, and religious 
peace. ' She prayed much for her children, and 
especially for Thomas, " her youngest and best 
beloved," upon whose mind she seems to have 
left the impress of her gentle and pious spirit, as 
well as of her tender and scrupulous conscience, 
which were its most distinguishing characteris- 
tics in after life. She died when Thomas was 
about four years old ; but young as he was, he 
was sensible of the " exceeding love " which she 
felt for him, and during the darker season which 
followed, he remembered her with a correspond- 
ing affection. 

When Thomas was about three years of age 
he was sent to reside with his grandparents at 
Fossecut, in order to avoid an epidemic disease 
which had begun to prevail at Towcester, and 
soon swept away several members, sisters as well 
as servants, from his father's family. Fossecut 
was a small, obscure, and wicked place, — " a most 
blind town and corner." The aged grandfather 
and grandmother, though in comfortable circum- 
stances as to temporal matters, were " very igno- 
rant," and, as we should naturally infer from the 



6 LIFE Of THOINIAS SIIEPARD, 

manner in which they dealt with the little boy 
committed to their care, very irreligious people; 
for here he was " put to keep geese, and other 
such country work," all the while " much neg- 
lected " by those who should have watched over 
him. It was not long, however, before he was 
removed from the influence of his grandparents, 
probably in consequence of this neglect, to the 
family of his uncle, at Adthrop, an adjoining 
town. The change seems to have been not much 
for the better; for Adthrop was "a little blind 
town ; " and while he there received more atten- 
tion, and was somewhat happier and more con- 
tented, he learned to " sing and sport as children 
did in those parts, and to dance at their Whit- 
son-Ales," — amusements which were far more 
pernicious to childhood than " keeping geese, and 
other such country work." For these sports 
were not the innocent plays and recreations of 
children among themselves, which all persons, 
even the Puritans, morose and gloomy as they 
are (falsely) represented to have been, must have 
approved ; but those demoralizing wakes, morris- 
dances, may-games, revels, &c., recommended 
and sanctioned by that abomination, " The Book 
of Sports," which James I., and after him Charles, 
" out of a pious care for the service of God," 
and desiring with filial reverence to " ratify his 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 17 



blessed father's declaration," ordered to be read 
in all the churches, for the " encouragement of 
recreations on the Lord's day." The* common 
people were fond of these sports ; but the Puri- 
tans, and the more serious portion of the com- 
•munity generally, regarded them with strong dis- 
approbation, not only as grossly profaning the 
Sabbath, but as being the fruitful source of drunk- 
enness, debauchery, contempt of authority, quar- 
rels, and even murders ; and efforts were made 
from time to time by the justices of peace, to 
have them suppressed as highly prejudicial to 
the peace, and good government of the coun- 
try.^ It is not strange, therefore, that Shep- 
ard, in mature life, should have looked back 
upon his early childhood, in which he was ex- 
posed to the corrupt influence of these sports, as 
a season of peculiar danger, from which he was 
mercifully delivered by a kind providence. 

When Thomas returned again to his father's 
house, which he did after the cause of his re- 
moval from home had passed by, he found all 
things changed, or fast changing for the worse. 
His " dear mother " was dead, or died very soon 
after his return. : His sister Margaret, who was 
very fond of him, married her father's clerk. His 
sister Ann, was married to '*one Mr. Farmer.''; 



* Neal, Hist. Purit. 2. 249. 

2* 



18 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEFARD. 

And to fill up the measure of his griefs, his fa- 
ther married a second wife, who soon made him 
aware of the difference between his " own mother 
and a step-mother. " She evidently did not love the 
little motherless boy, and endeavored to incense 
his father against him ; ** it may be," says Shep- 
ard, meekly, " that it was justly so, for my child- 
ishness." The neglect at grandfather's, and the 
" Whitson-Ales," at the " blind little town " of 
Adthrop, may have rendered the forlorn child 
somewhat wayward and troublesome ; but the 
probability is, that the step-mother magnified 
and misrepresented every fault of the orphan, 
that her own little Samuel might enjoy a larger 
share of his father's affection. 

After suffering under this domestic tyranny 
for some time, he was sent to the free school in 
Tovvcester. But this was to him the school of 
** one Tyrrannus," or of " Ajax Flagellifer." 
The master whose name was Eice, a Welch- 
man, was very severe and irritable ; and he 
treated the poor boy with such harshness and 
cruelty, as to extinguish, for the time, all love 
of learning, and to make him often wish that he 
might be a " keeper of hogs " rather than a schol- 
ar. " Bears," says Pliny, " are the fatter for 
beating." But this is not always or altogether 
true of boys, especially of such boys as Thomas 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 19 

Shepard, who, it is presumed, rarely needed 
chastisement, and was more lilv^ely to be injured 
than benefited by severity.'; " The fierce, Orbii- 
ian way of treating children, too commonly used 
in schools, is a dreadful curse of God upon our 
miserable offspring, who are born " children of 
wrath." It is boasted now and then of a school- 
master, that such and such a brave man had his 
education under him. There is nothing said, 
how many that might have been brave men, 
have been destroyed by him ; how many brave 
wits have been dispirited, confounded, murdered 
by his barbarous way of managing them. If a 
fault must be punished, let instruction, both unto 
the delinquent and unto the spectator, accompa- 
ny the correction. Let the odious nature of the 
sin that has enforced the correction be declared ; 
and let nothing be done in a passion ; let all be 
done with all the evidence of compassion that 
may be.'"^ 

f William Shepard,— the father, — died when 
Thomas was about ten years of age. During 
his last sickness, which was short and very dis- 
tressing, the oppressed and dispirited child, to 
whom life had begun to present its sternest re- 
alities, prayed passionately for his recovery; 
and he made a solemn resolution to serve God 



♦ Essays to Do Good, pp. 172, 173. 



20 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

belter than he had done, if his prayers might be 
answered ; *' as, knowing that I should be left 
alone if he were gone. Yet the Lord took him 
away by death, and I was left fatherless and 
motherless, when I was about ten years old.". 
It is not to be inferred from these prayers, that 
at this early age he entertained any hope that 
he was a christian ; for children who have been 
religiously educated, will often, under the press- 
ure of affliction, pray very earnestly for relief; 
but from the fact that he made a solemn cove- 
nant " to serve God letter, ^^ if his father might 
recover, we may presume that he had been under 
very serious impressions, and had tried to 
maintain a kind of religion in his life. 

Upon the death of his father, he was committed 
to the care of his mother-in-law, who, in consid- 
eration of his portion of £100, agreed to main- 
tain and educate him. But he was still doomed 
to be " much neglected," and to feel more keen- 
ly than ever the difference between his " own 
mother and a step-mother." She, as was to 
have been expected from her previous conduct, 
proved faithless to her trust ; and at last his 
brother John, — William being now dead, — of- 
fered to take him, and for the use of his portion, 
to bring him up as his own child. " And so I 
lived with this my eldest brother, who showed 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 21 

much love unto me, and unto whom I owe 
much ; for him God made to be both father and 
mother unto me." 

About this time the cruel Welch schoolmas- 
ter died, and was succeeded in the school by 
a man of talents and of reputed piety, who 
was also employed to officiate as the minister 
of the town. Although he disappointed the 
expectations of the people with respect to his 
piety, and afterwards became an " apostate and 
an enemy of all righteousness," he seems to 
have been an able teacher : for he succeeded in 
reviving or awakening in the mind of young 
Shepard, — who had conceived such a disgust 
of study that he had rather " keep hogs or 
beasts, than to go to school and learn," — a love 
of application, and a strong desire to be a scholar. 
Under this new stimulus, he applied himself 
with great diligence to the Latin and Greek lan- 
guages, in which he made rapid progress. He 
was studious, because he was " ambitious of be- 
ing a scholar," and of enjoying " the honor of 
learning." At the same time he seems to have 
been, to a certain extent, influenced by some 
higher, if not a truly religious motive : for once 
when he was unsuccessful in taking notes of the 
sermon, he was troubled about it, and " prayed 
the Lord earnestly," for assistance in this exer- 



22 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

cise ; a fact which, at least, indicates a deep 
sense of his dependence upon God for success in 
his studies, and a feeling that he was bound to 
seek the honor which cometh from above, as 
well as the " honor of learning." But what- 
ever his ruling passion might have been, and 
whatever may be inferred as to his religious 
state at this time, from his general seriousness, 
we know that he devoted himself to the necessa- 
ry studies with such diligence, and was enabled 
to make such progress in them, that before he 
had reached the age of fifteen, he was pro- 
nounced by competent judges to be fit for the 
University. 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 23 



CHAPTER II. 

Mr. Shepard enters Emmanual College, Cambridge. Devotes himeelf 
to hard study. Neglects religion. Becomes proud of a little learn- 
ing. Haa the smallpox. Effect of Dr. Chadderton's preaching. 
Associates with dissipated young men. Remonstrated with by 
religious friends. Falls into a gross sin. Effect of this sin upon his 
conscience. Dr. Preston. Deep Convictions. Distressing lempta- 
lions. Despair. Dawning of light. Letter to a friend. Increasing 
light. Change of life. Peace of mind. Application to study. 
Graduates with honor. 

The brother of Mr. Shepard, having undertaken 
the care of his education, was anxious to send 
him to College. But probably the expense of a 
collegiate course, exceeded, at that time, his pe- 
cuniary means; and the portion of £100, of 
which he had the use, would hardly defray the 
charges of a residence at either of the Universi- 
ties. At this moment, so critical and decisive 
in the life of the almost friendless scholar, Mr. 
Cockerill, a fellow of Emmanuel College, Cam- 
bridge, and a native of Northamptonshire, 
came to Northampton upon a visit to his 
friends ; and, having satisfied himself by a per- 
sonal examination that Shepard was worthy of 
patronage, encouraged his brother to send him 



24 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

to Cambridge, promising to use his influence 
there in his behalf. Other persons, connected 
with the University, interested themselves ia 
this application, and although he was, in his 
own opinion, " very raw and young," he was ad- 
mitted to Emmanuel College as a pensioner in 
the year 1619. During the early part of his 
College course, Mr. Cockerill, who had so 
kindly encouraged and befriended him, was his 
Tutor. Thus this chosen vessel, forsaken of 
father and mother, and cast helpless upon the 
world, was by " a secret hand of providence," 
taken out of '* that profane and ignorant town of 
Towcester," the "worst town, I think, in the 
world," and graciously provided for in Cam- 
bridge, " the best place for knowledge and 
learning," where he was to be prepared, by a 
various discipline, for an arduous and important 
service in the church of God. 

Up to this period, although he seems to have 
been at times deeply serious, and to have been 
in the habit of praying frequently under the 
pressure of affliction, he was evidently destitute 
of a saving knowledge of the truth. During 
the first two years of his College life, he devoted 
himself to hard study, greatly neglecting relig- 
ion and the practice of secret prayer, which he 
had hitherto observed, except at times, when his 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 25 



early religious impressions revived with consid- 
erable force, and lie was induced to pay some 
attention to the concerns of his soul. The effect 
of a little learning was what is often witnessed 
upon minds of his order. When in his third 
year, he became Sophister, he began to be 
" foolish and proud," and to exhibit himself in 
public as a disputer about things which he after- 
wards saw he "did not know then at all, but 
only prated about them." Time and more 
learning corrected this folly, and made him one 
of the humblest, as he was one of the devoutest 
of men. It would be well if he had more im- 
itators in the feelings with which he looked 
back upon this stage of his intellectual develop- 
ment. " There is nothing more lamentable," 
says Luther, in his Table Talk, " than the pride 
and ambition of many young preachers, who 
wish to shine as logicians, rhetoricians, &c., and 
become so finical and obscure in their preaching, 
that neither the people nor themselves know 
what they are about. A young lawyer, in his 
first year, is a Justinian; in his second year, 
he is a doctor ; in the third a licentiate ; in the 
fourth a bachelor ; in the fifth a student." " 

But Mr. Shepard was not left to neglect the 
interests of his soul in his ambition to shine as 
a scholar, and a "disputer of this world." In 

VOL. IV. 3 



26 LIFE OF T H 31 A S S II E P A R D , 

his second year he was brought near to the grave 
by the small-pox, which had awakened him, in 
some measure, to a sense of his guik and dan- 
ger. The preaching of Doctor Chadderton, the 
Master of Emmanual College, especially upon 
•' a sacrament day," also produced a deep im- 
pression upon his mind. And a few months af- 
terwards, he heard Mr. Dickinson, in the Chap- 
el, discourse upon the words, ' I will not destroy 
it for ten's sake,' with a powerful effect upon his 
conscience. But these serious impressions grad- 
ually disappeared, and he unfortunately fell into 
the society of some dissipated young men, who 
endeavored to counteract and destroy all the in- 
fluence of those pious preachers. He even, for 
a time, went with them in their time-wasting, 
and soul-destroying amusements and pleasures, 
and seemed fast making shipwreck of faith and 
a good conscience. But he was not suffered to 
continue long in this thoughtless state. Upon 
one occasion, a pious student, with whom he 
chanced to be walking, described to him " the 
misery of every man out of Christ," and faith- 
fully admonished him of his guilt and danger. 
This awakened, and for a time checked him in 
his course of folly and sin. At another time he 
happened to be present when several pious per- 
sons were conversing upon the wrath of God, 



L 1 F K OF THOMAS S 11 E P A R D . 27 

revealed from heaven against all unrighteous- 
ness and ungodliness of men, which they spoke 
of under the figure of a consuming fire, intoler- 
able and eternal. This conversation revived 
and strengthened the solemn impressions which 
had been previously made upon his mind, and 
led him to resume the practice of secret prayer, 
as a means of escaping from that wrath to come 
which he so much feared. 

But he had not yet seen the evil of his heart, 
nor felt that conviction of sin which prostrates 
the soul before the throne of Grace in godly 
sorrow that worketh repentance unto life. The 
effect of the conversations referred to, soon wore 
off, as other serious impressions had done ; until 
an event occurred which revived them all with 
overwhelming force, and made him feel, as he 
had never felt before, the need of atoning blood 
to cleanse him from all sin. The sin of Peter, 
and its immediate effect, are left upon the sacred 
record to show us the depth to which men may 
fall if left to themselves, — to encourage the 
penitent sinner to return with tears to the Sav- 
iour against whom he has sinned, — and to exhibit 
the riches of divine grace which can rescue the 
soul from the deepest degradation ; and for the 
same reasons, we record the fact which follows, 



28 LIFE OF T H 31 A S S H E P A K D . 

earnestly admonishing the reader to beware of 
using it as an encouragement to sin, lest his 
♦' bands be made strong," and repentance be hid 
from his eyes. As the fears which had been 
awakened by the solemn addresses of his pious 
friends gradually subsided, Shepard again associ- 
ated with the loose and dissipated students of his 
own and of other colleges, and frequently joined 
them in their intemperate carousals : until at 
length, upon a Saturday night, he drank so 
freely that he became grossly intoxicated, and 
was carried, in a state of insensibility, to the 
chambers of a student of Christ's College, where 
he awoke to consciousness late on Sabbath 
morning, sick and completely prostrated from 
the effects of this debauch. 

The moral impression of a fall like this, is 
very different upon different persons. Some of 
those dissolute young men, probably, thought of 
that night's excess, only as a matter to be laughed 
about at their next convivial meeting. Not so 
with Shepard. Filled with confusion and shame 
by the recollection of his " beastly carriage," he 
hurried away into the fields, and there hid liim- 
self, during the whole of that dreadful Sabbath, 
from every eye but that of God. The particu- 
lar sin, however, which made him afraid, and 
drove him, like Adam, into concealment, not 



LIFE OF THOMAS SIIEPARD. 29 

only awakened him to pungent sorrow for this 
act, but opened his eyes to see the exceeding- 
sinfulness of his whole life, and the necessity of 
repentance for all his sins. It was a day long 
to be remembered, for it was the commencement 
of a new life. In that solitude, where he lay 
trembling like a culprit, " the Lord, who might 
justly have cut me off in the midst of my sin, did 
meet me with much sadness of heart, and trou- 
bled my soul for this and other sins, which then 
I had leisure to think of, and made me resolve 
to set upon a course of daily meditation about 
the evil of sin, and my own ways." Let those 
who are disposed to speak lightly or scornfully 
of the early transgressions of eminent Christians, 
remember the bitter tears with which they were 
lamented and abandoned. 

But with all this trouble of mind, and com- 
punction on account of actual sins, he had not 
yet obtained a true self-knowledge, nor seen the 
hidden evils of his heart. To this deeper and 
clearer view of himself as a sinner, he was led 
by the preaching of Dr. Preston, one of the 
most able theologians and preachers of his times, 
who became master of Emmanuel College in 
1622. Shepard, hearing the preaching of Dr. 

Preston spoken of as " most spiritual and excel- 
3# 



30 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

lent," by Samuel Stone and others, listened 
attentively to the instructions of this celebrated 
divine, hoping to find here that guidance in the 
way of righteousness which he so much needed.. 
The first sermon which he heard from Dr. Pres- 
ton was upon ihe words, *' Be ye transformed 
by the renewing of your mind," Rom. 12 : 2 ; 
in which the nature of a change of heart was 
clearly unfolded. Under this discourse " the 
Lord so bored my ears, as that I understood 
what he spake ; the secrets of my soul were laid 
open before me, and the hypocrisy of all the 
good things I thought I had in me, as if one had 
told him of all that ever I did, — of all the turn- 
ings and deceits of my heart." So clearly was 
he made to see himself, — his secret sins, — the 
whole frame and temper of his mind, — that he 
thought Dr. Preston " the most searching 
preacher in the world ;" and wiih profound 
gratitude to God, and love for the preacher, he 
began in earnest to seek for that radical conver- 
sion and renewal, the nature of which had been 
so clearly exhibited to him. 

This new birth, however, was not to be for 
Shepard, as it appears to be in some cases, a 
speedy or an easy work. Many pass from a 
state of sin and condemnation, to the light, lib- 
erty and hope of the children of God, in such 



LIFE OF THOMAS SIIEPARU. 31 

a way that their whole experience in relation to 
this change may be expressed in the words 
of the blind man whom the Saviour suddenly 
and by a miraculous touch, restored to sight : 
" Whereas I was blind, now I see." But Shep- 
ard's conviction of sin had been exceedingly 
pungent and distressing, and his progress to a 
state of reconciliation and peace with God, was 
rough, protracted, and painful. He was beset 
with fears of death and " the terrors of God's 
wrath." In his daily meditation "constantly 
every evening before supper," he found the Lord 
ever teaching him something concerning him- 
self, or the divine law, or the vanity of the 
world, which he never saw before, and which 
filled him with perplexity and overwhelming 
solicitude. He was also assaulted by sharp 
temptations. At one time he felt " a depth 
of atheism and unbelief in the main matters 
of salvation," — whether the Scriptures were the 
word of God, — whether Christ was the Messiah, 
— whether there was a God. At another time 
he . " felt all manner of temptations to all 
kinds of religions, not knowing which to 
choose." At last he " heard of Grindleton," 
and was in danger of falling into perfection- 
ism, familism, antinomianism, or whatever 
that system was called, which afterwards made 



32 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

such havoc in the infant churches of New- 
England. He did not really adopt or believe 
any of the absurd doctrines of the familists, 
but only went so far in these " miserable fluc- 
tuations and straits of his soul," as to ques- 
tion *' whether that glorious state of perfection 
might not be the truth, and whether old Mr. 
Rogers' " Seven Treatises," and the " Practice of 
Christianity," — books which were then esteem- 
ed as containing very sound theology, — " might 
not be legal," and these writers "legal men;" 
a singular hallucination, from which he was 
soon delivered by reading in one of the familist 
books the astounding doctrine, that a Christian 
is so swallowed up in the spirit, " that what ac- 
tion soever the spirit moves him to commit, 
suppose adultery, he may do it, and it is no sin 
to him." This passage, like an over dose of 
poison, operated exactly contrary to its nature 
and design. Tempted as he was to " all kinds 
of religion," he could not digest this doctrine of 
devils ; and the horrible absurdity of the propo- 
sition awakened in him an intense abhorrence 
of the whole system to which it belonged, which 
in after years, and in more critical times, ren- 
dered him a most determined and successful op- 
poser of antinomianism, as we shall see in the 
progress of this biography. 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHE PARI). 33 

In the mean time the other temptations by 
which he was led to doubt the genuineness of 
Christ's miracles, and in short, the truth of 
Divine revelation, continued with unabated, if 
not with increasing severity; so that at last, 
having questioned whether Christ did not cast 
out devils by Beelzebub, he conceived the dread- 
ful idea that he had committed the unpardona- 
ble sin, and was abandoned to hopeless apostasy 
and destruction. And now " the terrors of God 
began to break in, like floods of fire," into his 
soul. He saw, as he then thought, in these re- 
bellious doubts, and in this chaotic darkness of 
mind, the fruits of " God's eternal reprobation." 
He thought of God as " a consuming fire and 
an everlasting burning," and himself as a " poor 
prisoner led to that fire." And these " thoughts 
of eternal reprobation and torment," so distressed 
him, especially " at one time upon a Sabbath 
day at evening," that be became well nigh dis- 
tracted, and was strongly tempted, like Judas, to 
anticipate his doom, and by suicide hurry to his 
own place. 

During eight dark and dismal months these 
" fiery darts of satan" were incessantly hurled 
at his peace, and there seemed to be no help for 
his poor soul in God or man ; for he was afraid 
of God, and was " ashamed to speak of these 



34 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

things " to any experienced Christian. Three 
things, according to Luther, are necessary to form 
a theologian, namely, study, prayer and tempta- 
tion. And doubtless Sliepard's gloomy passage 
through this " slough of despond " was neces- 
sary to give him a clear and an afiecting view 
of his misery and helplessness as a sinner, — to 
fix more firmly in his mind those doctrines 
which he was subsequently to preach, — to make 
him humble under the honor that awaited 
him, — and to fit him to apply the promises of 
the Gospel judiciously to distressed consciences. 
Like Luther, he learned the true divinity by be- 
ing " hunted into the Bible," and to the throne 
of grace ; and he was eminently fitted to sym- 
pathize with the afflicted, by those horrible 
temptations which almost broke his spirit and 
drove him to despair. At the same time, his 
peculiar experience, both in his descent into 
these *' depths of satan," and in the manner of 
his deliverance from them, tended to give to his 
preaching and writings that "legal" aspect, 
which there will be occasion to speak of more 
particularly hereafter. 

His conflicts were now drawing to a close, 
and light was about to dispel the horror of that 
darkness in which his mind had been so long 
shrouded. When he was at the worst, not 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 35 

knowing what to do, and not daring to disclose 
his feelings to any person, it occurred to him 
that he should do as Christ did in his agony. 
The Saviour prayed earnestly, and an angel 
came down to comfort him ; and this seemed to 
he the only way of relief. Shut up to this, he 
fell down in agonizing supplication, and " being 
in prayer, I saw myself so unholy, and God so 
holy that my spirit began to sink ; yet the 
Lord recovered me, and poured out a spirit of 
prayer upon me for free mercy and pity ; and in 
the conclusion of the prayer, I found the Lord 
helping me to see my unworthiness of any 
mercy, and to leave myself with him to do with 
me what he would. And then, and never till 
then, I found rest; and so my heart was hum- 
bled, and I went with a stayed heart to supper 
late that night, and so rested here, and the ter- 
rors of the Lord began to assuage sweetly." 

To a friend who afterwards inquired of him 
how the atheistical thoughts which had tor- 
mented him were removed, he thus writes : 
" The Lord awakened me, and bid me beware 
lest an old sore break out again. And this I 
found, that strength of reason would commonly 
convince my understanding that there was a 
God ; but I felt it utterly insufficient to persuade 
my will of it, unless it was by fits, whenas I 



36 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

thought God's spirit moved upon the chaos of 
those horrible thoughts ; and this I think will 
be found a truth. I did groan under the bond- 
age of those unbelieving thoughts, looking up, 
and sighing to the Lord, that if he were, as his 
works and word declared him to be, he would 
please to reveal himself by his owii beams, and 
persuade my heart by his own spirit of his es- 
sence and being, which, if he would do, I should 
account it the greatest mercy that ever he showed 
me. And after grievous and heavy perplexities, 
when I was by them almost forced to make an 
end of myself and sinful life, and to be my own 
executioner, the Lord came between the bridge 
and the water, and set me out of anguish of 
spirit, to pray unto him for light in the midst of 
so great darkness. In which time he revealed 
himself, manifested his love, stilled all those 
raging thoughts, so that though I could not read 
the Scripture without blasphemous thoughts be- 
fore, now I saw a glory, a majesty, a mystery, 
a depth in it, which fully persuaded : and which 
light, — I desire to speak it to the glory of his 
free grace, seeing you call me to it, — is not 
wholly put out, but remains, while I desire to 
walk closely with him, unto this day. And 
thus the Lord opened my eyes, and cured me of 
my misery : and if any such base thoughts 



LIFE OF THOMAS S II E P A R D . 37 

come (like beg^gars to my door) to my mind, 
and put these scruples to me, I use to send them 
away with this answer ; why should I question 
that truth, which I have both known and seen."=^ 
To the period referred to in this extract, the 
conversion of Mr. Shepard must be assigned ; 
but he did not at once obtain full assurance and 
a settled peace. The firm earth upon which he 
had at length landed, seemed to heave under 
him like the stormy sea where he had been so 
long tossed, and for awhile he walked unsteadily 
and with fear. When his distracting doubts, 
and dreadful apprehensions of God's wrath were 
gone, he still felt his unworthiness, — his bond- 
age to self and the world, — his unfitness for any 
good work, — and was oppressed with the dread 
of losing what God had already wrought in him. 
But walking, on one occasion, in the fields, 
*' the Lord dropped this meditation " into his 
mind, with a distinctness and force which made 
it appear almost like an address ; " Be not dis- 
couraged because thou art so vile, but make this 
double use of it ; first, loathe thyself the more ; 
secondly, feel a greater need and put a greater 
price upon Jesus Christ, who only can redeem 
thee from all sin." This thought greatly en- 



* Select Cases Resolved, pp. 44, 45. 
VOL. IV. 4 



38 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

couraged him, and he was thus enabled lo "beat 
satan with his own weapons." 

His outward life was now wholly changed. 
He abstained from all appearance of evil. He 
no longer associated with the gay and the 
thoughtless. And he felt it to be his duty, not 
only to exhibit an example of holy living, but to 
labor in all appropriate ways for the conversion 
of his fellow students. So much progress he had 
made, without any direct assistance from human 
instructors, and without obtaining any assur- 
ance of his pardon and acceptance with God. 
He had been working out his salvation with 
fear and trembling, alone ; and although his 
face was toward Zion, and his feet in the way 
of the divine precepts, he needed, like Apollos, 
that some one should expound unto him the way 
of God more perfectly, and to lead him to take 
those views of Christ and of his redemptive 
work, which were necessary to to a cheerful 
hope, and an appropriation of the promises of 
grace. 

At this stage of his experience, and in this 
state of mind. Dr. Preston providentially 
preached a sermon upon 1 Cor. 1 : 30; " But 
of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is 
made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and 
sanctification, and redemption," in which he 



LIFE OF THOMAS SIIEPARD. 39 



showed that there is in Christ an ample supply 
for all our spiritual wants, and that this treasure 
is designed for the benefit of all Christians. *' And 
when he had opened how all the good, all the 
redemption I had, was from Jesus Christ, I did 
then begin to prize him, and he became very 
sweet to me." Although he had often heard 
Christ freely offered by ministers before, if men 
would receive him as their Lord and Saviour, 
yet he had found his heart " ever unwilling to 
accept of Christ upon those terms." But now 
Christ became precious to his soul, and he found 
it easy to comply with the conditions upon which 
all the blessings of redemption were promised. 

He was not, however, entirely free from all 
fears and doubts. But he found the Lord 
constantly " revealing free mercy," and showing 
him that all his ability to believe in Christ, 
and to accept of him, was in this grace of God. 
He saw that Christ obeyed the law, not on his 
own account, but to work out, and bring in 
" everlasting righteousness " for poor sinners 
who had none of their own, — a righteousness 
which is sufficient to "justify the ungodly who 
believeth in Jesus." He saw also that " to as 
many as received him, to them gave He power 
to become the sons of God," and he felt that the 
Lord had given him " a heart to receive Christ 



40 LIFE OF THOMAS S H E P A K D . 

wilh a naked hand. ' And so, after many con- 
flicts, and questionings, he obtained that peace 
of God which passeth knowledge, and com- 
menced that life of faith, which, as the shining 
light, shone brighter and brighter unto the per- 
fect day. 

Although these religious exercises must have 
occupied a considerable portion of his time, and 
have rendered all human learning and worldly 
honor comparatively worthless, yet he seems to 
have maintained a highly respectable standing in 
college ; and after the decided change, which 
has been described, took place, and religion began 
to shed its light and peace upon his soul, a 
rapid development of his intellectual powers 
became evident. There is nothing that gives 
such elevation, strength, and enlargement to the 
mind, as the practical reception of the word of 
God under the influence of the Holy Spirit. 
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wis- 
dom, and the knowledge of the holy is under- 
standing." Shcpard, in common with many 
others, felt the invigorating eflect of that heav- 
enly knowledge ; and in after years, when 
young men consulted him with respect to their 
studies, he was accustomed to refer to this in- 
fluence of religion upon his own mind, and to 
advise them to spend a considerable portion of 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 41 

their time in communing with their own hearts 
and with God, a practice which he had found 
so beneficial in all his intellectual effbrls. Thus, 
at peace with God, — with a definite object of 
pursuit before him, — and in the diligent applica- 
tion of himself to all his studies, — he continued 
through the remainder of his college life. He 
took his Bachelor's degree in 1623 ; — not far 
from the time, as we should judge, when he 
experienced the radical change in his religious 
feelings above described ; and in 1625, when he 
had finished his course of study, he left college, 
with a high reputation for scholarship, and with 
the usual honors of the University. 



4* 



42 LIFE OF TH03IAS SHETARD 



CHAPTER III. 



Mr. ShcparJ goes lo Mr. Weld's. Sketch of English Ecclesiastical 
history. Stale of England at the accession of Henry VIII. Doc 
irinca of tiie Wuldenses. Wickliff. Remonstrance of the fol 
lowers of WlcklilT. Separation of the English Church from Rome 
Henry VIII becomes head of the Church. Act of supremacy 
Opinions of the people. Edward VI. Origin of the Liturgy 
3Iary and Elizal)elh. State of the nation. Act of Uniformity 
Court of High Commission. Subscription enforced. Era of non 
conformity and separation. Penalty for absence from public 
worship. Distinction between Non-conformists and Brownista. 
Nature of schism. 



I\Ir. SiiETARD became Master of Arts in the year 
1(527. About six months before taking his de- 
gree, he went to reside in the family of Thomas 
Weld, (then of Tarling, in the county of Essex, 
and afterwards ordained the first minister of the 
church in Roxbury) where he received much 
aid in his theological studies, and encourage- 
ment in his Christian course. Here he became 
acquainted with Thomas Hooker, who about 
that time was appointed a Lecturer at Chelms- 
ford, in Essex, from whose able and discriminat- 
ing ministry he derived great advantage. While 
engaged in his studies and preparation at Tar- 



LIFE OF THOBIAS SHEPARD. 43 

lin^, he became " very solicitous what would 
become of him," when he had taken his Mas- 
ter's degree ; for then his *' time and portion 
would be spent," and he would be left without 
resources, and with small hope of finding any 
employment for which he was fitted. 

The religious condition of England, at that 
time, was very dark and perplexed •, and the 
prospects of pious young men, who like Thomas 
Shepard, desired to serve God and their genera- 
lion in the gospel ministry, were exceedingly 
discouraging. Although the picture of those 
times has been often drawn, and the circum- 
stances which compelled our fathers to abandon, 
not only the church in which they had been ed- 
ucated, but the country that gave them birth, 
have been often and eloquently described, yet it 
may not be amiss to give, in this place, a brief 
sketch of the history of that gloomy period, that 
our youthful readers may clearly understand 
what it was that made Mr. Shepard so " solic- 
itous what should become of him," and why he 
could not devote his talents and piety to the 
work of the ministry in protestant England. 

At the beginning of the reign of Henry the 
Eighth, who ascended the throne of England in 
the year 1509, the English church was a branch 
of that Papal hierarchy, which had extended its 



44 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

power over the civilized world, and like the great 
red dragon of the Apocalypse, had swept away a 
large part of the stars of heaven, and cast them 
to the earth, rendering the skies black, and the 
night hideous. During the long and tyrannical 
reign of that apostate church, however, there 
were a few faithful witnesses for the truth who 
testified and were persecuted, like Antipas, even 
in the region where " Satan's seat " was. In 
the valleys of the Alps, the Waldenses, uncor- 
rupted by the errors, and unawed by the power 
of Rome, retained the doctrines, and observed 
the discipline of the primitive church. The 
history of these people is indeed somewhat ob- 
scure ; but from their own declarations, corrob- 
orated by the confessions of some of their worst 
enemies, it appears highly probable that they 
could trace the origin of their churches back to 
the age of the Apostles, and that their religious 
doctrines and practices were substantially those 
which long afterwards were adopted and main- 
tained by the English Puritans. They rejected 
the books of the Apocraphy from the sacred 
canon. They kept the Sabbath very strictly. 
They were extremely careful of the religious 
education of their children. They denied the 
supremacy of the Pope, the lawfulness of indul- 
gences, auricular confession, prayers for the 



LIFE OF THOMAS S H E P A R D . 45 



dead, transubstantiation, invocation of saints, 
and the worship of the virgin Mary. They ab- 
horred the mass, the doctrine of purgatory, and 
in short, all the unscriptural ceremonies, super- 
stitions, and abominations of the papacy. They 
committed the pastoral care of their churches to 
ministers freely chosen by themselves, who were 
expected, in conformity to the apostolic injunction, 
to be examples to the flock, in word, in conver- 
sation, in faith, in purity, in charity. Their 
whole aim seems to have been to realize in their 
form of ecclesiastical government, and in the 
lives both of the clergy and of the people, that 
sanctity and godly simplicity, which character- 
ized the commencement of the church, and 
which were so beautifully exhibited in the pre- 
cepts and example of Jesus Christ."^ 

Thus, three hundred years before the Ref- 
ormation, we find a company of sturdy reform- 
ers, who had never bowed the knee to Baal, — a 
remnant according to the election of grace, — 
who prepared the way, and furnished the means 
for the final overthrow of " that man of sin," 
that " son of perdition," who " exalteth himself 
above all that is called God, or that is worshiped." 
They were the Protestants of the twelfth centu- 



*Mo3lieini, Eccl. Hist, cent. 12, ch. V2. 



46 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 



ry ; and were called Cathari, pure, on account 
of the professed purity of their doctrines and 
life, just as our fathers were afterwards in scorn 
styled Puritans, for their opposition to the errors 
and corruptions of their times. 

The Reformation, Avhich many erroneously 
suppose to have commenced in the sixteenth 
century, was nothing more than the rejection of 
doctrines and practices, which men, in the 
course of ages had ignorantly or wickedly added 
to the religion of Christ. And this work was 
commenced by the faithful servants of God as 
soon as the evil began. The great Head of the 
church had never left himself without a few 
witnesses, at least, to testify against the errors 
that were constantly mingling with his truth. 
The Romanists ask with an air of triumph, 
" Where was your religion before Luther's Ref- 
ormation ?" We answer, that in the darkest 
times of the antichristian apostasy, the true 
church, and the doctrines which Luther, and 
Calvin, and our fathers preached, were found 
among the Waldenses, three hundred years be- 
fore the time of Luther ; and they were but the 
successors and representatives of still earlier re- 
formers, who protested with what strength they 
had against the encroachments of the " man of 
sin." It was from these people that the doc- 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 47 

trines of the Reformation were disseminated in 
England and on the continent, and had it not 
been for them, perhaps neither Wickliff in the 
fourteenth century, nor Luther in the sixteenth, 
would have appeared as reformers. During the 
fierce persecutions to which they were constant- 
ly exposed in the thirteenth century from the 
papal church, some of them fled into Germany ; 
while others, turning to the west, found refuge 
"in England. Raymond Lollard, one of the lead- 
ing men among the Waldenses, promulgated their 
doctrines in the land of our fathers, where they 
were called " Lollards;" and where, from the fact 
that so late as the year 1619 there was a tower 
standing in London, which inconsequence of its 
use as a place of confinement for those who pro- 
fessed their religion, was called " The Lollard's 
Tower," it would seem that they did not wholly 
escape the malice of that antichristian power 
which consumed their fathers and brethren as 
heretics in Italy. 

The doctrines held by the Waldenses, were 
received and taught by John Wicklifl^, the earli- 
est of the English reformers. Wickliff was 
bom about the year 1324. He was educated at 
Queen's College, Oxford, in which he was after- 
wards Professor of Divinity, and was for a time 
minister of Lutterworth, in the diocese of Lin- 



43 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

coin. He was a profound scholar, and an elo- 
quent preacher. Though born and educated 
amidst all the darkness of popery, he preached, 
substantially, the same doctrines which were 
afterwards maintained by the Puritans ; and one 
hundred and thirty years before the Reforma- 
tion, vindicated those great principles, which, 
under the preaching of Luther, Calvin, and oth- 
ers, enlightened the world, and produced that 
movement towards religious and civil liberty, 
which must eventually be enjoyed by all nations. 
He wrote nearly two hundred volumes; but his 
greatest work was the translation of the New 
Testament into English. 

WicklifTdied in 13S4. After his death, the 
University published the following testimony 
concerning him : " That from his youth to the 
time of his death, his conversation was so 
praiseworthy, that there never was any spot or 
suspicion reported of it : that in his reading and 
preaching he behaved like a stout and valiant 
champion of the faith ; and that he had written 
in Logic, Philosophy, Divinity, Morality, and 
the Arts, without an equal." Without, howev- 
er, supposing that WicklifT was either imma(iu- 
late in life, or absolutely free from theological 
errors, we may regard him as a bold defender of 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 49 

fundamental truths, and the "morning star" of 
the Reformation in England. 

In the year 1425, after he had been dead more 
than forty years, the council of Constance or- 
dered all his works to be collected and burnt, 
together with his bones. This diabolical order 
was executed by Richard Fleming, bishop of 
Lincoln, who caused the remains of the excom- 
municated reformer to be dug up, burnt, and the 
ashes to be thrown into a brook. " Thus," says 
Fuller, " this brook hath conveyed his ashes into 
Avon ; Avon into Severn ; Severn into the 
Narrow Seas ; they into the main ocean. And 
thus the ashes of Wickliff are the emblem of his 
doctrine which is now disseminated all the 
world over."^ The number of his disciples in- 
creased so greatly after his death, that new and 
more severe laws were made against heretics, in 
the hope, vain as all such hopes must be, that 
force would prevent the spread of truth, and the 
dungeon and the stake put an end to the efforts 
of Christians to rescue the people from the 
thraldom of error. Fox, the Martyrologist, re- 
ferring to the posthumous persecution of Wick- 
liff, remarks, " that as there is no counsel against 
the Lord, so there is no keeping down truth, 



♦ Church History.. B. IV., p. 171. 
VOL. IV. 5 



50 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

but it will spring and come out of dust and ash- 
es, as appeared in this man. For they digged 
up his body, burnt his bones, and drowned his 
ashes, yet the word of God, and truth of his doc- 
trine, with the fruit and success of his labors, 
they could not burn, and they remain, for the 
most part, to this day.'"^ 

About eight years after Wickliff 's death, his 
followers presented a remonstrance to the Eng- 
lish Parliament, in which they speak of Roman- 
ism just as Shepard did, two hundred and fifty 
j'-ears later. They say, that when the Church 
of England began to mismanage her temporal- 
ities in conformity to the precedent of Rome, 
faith, hope, and charity, began to take leave of 
her communion ; that the English priesthood, 
derived from Rome, and pretending to a power 
superior to angels, is not the priesthood which 
Christ settled upon his apostles ; that the enjoin- 
ing celibacy upon the clergy was the occasion of 
scandalous irregularities in the church ; that the 
pretended miracle of transubstantiation runs the 
great part of Christendom upon idolatry; that 
exorcisms and benedictions, pronounced over 
bread and oil, wax and incense, over the stones 
of the altar, the holy vestments, the mitre, the 



Actu and Mouumonts. 1. 600. 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHETARD. 51 

cross, and the pilgrim's staff, have more of necro- 
mancy than of religion in them ; that the union 
of the offices of prince and bishop, prelate and 
secular judge, in the same person, and making 
the rector of a parish a civil officer, is a plain 
mismanagement, and puts a kingdom out of the 
right way ; that prayer made for the dead is a 
wrong ground for charity and religious endow- 
ments, and therefore all the charities of England 
stand upon a wrong foundation ; that pilgrim- 
ages, prayers, and offerings, made to images and 
crosses, have nothing of charity in them, and 
are near of kin to idolatry ; that auricular con- 
fession makes the priests proud, and lets them 
into the secrets of the penitent, gives opportuni- 
ty for intrigues, and that this, as well as the 
doctrine of indulgences, is attended with scan- 
dalous consequences; that the vow of single life 
undertaken by women in the Church of Eng- 
land, is the occasion of horrible disorders.'"^ 
These were sound doctrines, and well put to the 
reason and conscience of the Parliament ; but 
they wrought no change, and rendered it no 
safer to preach or practice them. Persecution 
raged against the Lollards, — as all who desired 
a reformation of the church were now called, — 



* Collier, Eel. Hist. 1. cent. 14. 



62 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

under Henry the Fifth ; but the more they were 
persecuted the more they increased, and they 
sowed the whole of England with good seed, 
which, nourished by the blood of the martyrs, 
has continued to bring forth good fruit to this 
day. 

The first rupture between the English church 
and the papal hierarchy, and the commencement 
of what has been called the Reformation in 
England, were occasioned, not by a change of 
religious opinions either in the ruling powers, or 
the great mass of the people, but by causes purely 
selfish and worldly. Henry the Eighth, a man, 
not only destitute of all personal religion, but pos- 
sessed of all the vile and abominable passions 
which can degrade humanity, wished to obtain 
from the Pope a divorce from his queen, Katha- 
rine, that he might, with the sanction of the 
church, marry Anne Boleyn, who had been an 
attendant upon the queen. The ground which 
he assigned for this divorce was so absurd 
that even the Pope, unscrupulous as he was in 
respect to other matters, and strongly as he 
was inclined to grant the request of his 
powerful subject, could not be prevailed upon 
to sanction it. Whereupon Henry, not to be 
defeated in his cruel purpose, resolved to make 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 53 

himself the supreme head of the English 
church. 

His first act of retaliation upon the Pope, was 
a proclamation, in which all persons were for- 
bidden to purchase any thing from Rome, under 
the severest penalties. In 1534, being the 
twenty-sixth year of his reign, the Act of Su- 
premacy, which took from the Pope all authori- 
ty and power over the church in England, and 
gave to the king all authority whatever in ec- 
clesiastical affairs, was passed by the Parlia- 
ment. This Act declares that " the king, his 
heirs, and successors, kings of England, shall be 
taken, accepted, and reputed the only Supreme 
Head of the Church of England ; and shall have 
and enjoy, annexed and united to the imperial 
crown of this realm, as well the title and style 
thereof, as all the honors, immunities, profits, 
and commodities, to the Supreme Head of the 
church belonging; and shall have full power 
and authority to visit, repress, redress, and 
amend all such errors, heresies, abuses, con- 
tempts, and enormities, whatsoever they be, 
which by any manner of spiritual authority or ju- 
risdiction, ought or may be lawfully reformed, re- 
pressed, ordered, redressed, counciled, restrained, 
or amended, most to the pleasure of Almighty 
God, and increase of virtue in Christ's religion, 
5# 



54 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

and for the conservation of peace, unity, and 
tranquility of this realm, any usage, custom, 
foreign law, foreign authority, prescription, or 
any thing or things to the contrary notwith- 
standing." 

This Act was the commencement of what has 
been called the '• Reformation " in England. 
But it was not such an act as the state of the 
church demanded. It was conceived in sin, and 
brought forth in iniquity. It gave no relief to 
burdened consciences, nor freedom to the souls 
that were crying from under the altar. It made 
no change in doctrine, nor breathed any new 
life into the dead formalities of the old religion. 
It simply transferred the church, like a flock 
of sheep, from a rapacious pope, to a brutal 
and licentious king ; and gave to a civil in- 
stead of an ecclesiastical tyrant, the sole power 
of reforming abuses, heresies, and errors, with- 
out the slightest regard to the rights of con- 
science, or the laws of Jesus Christ. It was an 
act which in banishing the pope, banished the 
King of Zioii from his appropriate domain, and 
enthroned one who might be called literally, a 
" man of sin,'" in the church, — for he was one of 
the most wicked of men, — authorizing him, as 
God, to sit in the temple^and to usurp the au- 
thority of God. It was continually fortified, and 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 55 

its provisions extended, by subsequent acts of 
Parliament. In the thirty-seventh year of this 
reign, a law was passed which declares " that 
arch-bishops, bishops, arch-deacons, and others, 
have no manner of jurisdiction ecclesiastical, 
but by, under, and from the king's authority, the 
only undoubted supreme head of the Church of 
England, to whom, by holy Scripture, all au- 
thority and power is wholly given to hear and 
determine all manner of causes whatsoever, and 
to correct all manner of heresies, errors, vices, 
and sins whatever; and to all such persons as 
his Majesty shall appoint thereunto." Under 
this law chancelors, commissioners, and other 
officers, never heard of in the primitive church, 
were appointed ; and, to secularize the church 
as effectually as possible, the king in the exer- 
cise of his unlimited power, committed all the 
most important ecclesiastical matters to laymen. 
This exorbitant power in the political head of the 
church, was confirmed in the reign of Edward the 
Sixth, of Queen Elizabeth, of James I., and of 
Charles II.; and until the reign of William and 
Mary, all clergymen were compelled to acknowl- 
edge it in the oath of supremacy, — an oath which 
transferred their allegiance, as Christians, from 
Christ to the king of England, and made them 
traitors to the cause which all true ministers are 



56 LIFE OF THOMAS SIIEPARD. 

bound by a more solemn and stringent oath to 
defend at all hazards.^ 

Although the Church of England was thus 
effectually separated from the church of Rome, 
and emancipated from the authority of the pope, 
the great body of the inferior clergy, and of the 
people, countenanced and encouraged by many 
leading men both in church and state, adhered 
firmly to the old opinions and practices ; and 
although during the reign of this capricious and 
cruel tyrant, there was much confiscation of 
church property, and persecution of Roman 
Catholics, there was but very little reformation 
from the worst corruptions of popery. How 
could the church be purified by such a beast as 
Henry the Eighth, and by time-serving men like 
Cranmer, who were always ready to become 
the tools of a power that neither feared God nor 
regarded man ? 

Edward the Sixth, a youth of very different 
disposition and temper from his father, — of visi- 
ble piety even, — ascended the throne in 1547. 
Under his reign some change for the better was 
effected in the condition of the oppressed and 
suffering church. Two of the statutes against 
the Lollards, and several oppressive popish laws, 

* Neal, Hist Purii 2, ch. 1. Pierce, Vindication of Dissenters 
7—9. Hume, Hint. Engl. A. D. 1534. 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 57 

were repealed, and others more favorable to 
truth and liberty, enacted by the Parliament 
which assembled soon after the accession of the 
young king. A committee of divines was ap- 
pointed to examine and reform the worship of 
the church, who finding the clergy generally 
incapable of composing either sermons or 
prayers, set forth a book of Homilies, and a 
Liturgy for their use. This change in the wor- 
ship of the church was the foundation of that 
Uniformity which was subsequently established 
by the government, and exacted with such un- 
sparing rigor by those in power, that many of 
the most pious and useful ministers in England, 
like Shepard and his associates, who had con- 
scientious scruples respecting the propriety of 
some of these offices, were obliged to abandon 
the ministry, or like the woman of the Revela- 
tion, flee into the wilderness where God had 
prepared a place for them. 

Nothing can be more certain than that in the 
first and purest age of the church, there was no 
such thing as a uniform Liturgy which all wor- 
shipers were obliged to use and conform to. 
Very few forms appear to have been used for 
three hundred years, and those were not imposed 
upon the people by ecclesiastical or civil power. 



59 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

In those times Christian worship consisted of 
hymns, — prayers, — (which, as Tertullian says, 
were offered si7ie 7?ionitorc, quia de pectore^ 
^vithout a prompter, because they came from the 
heart,) — the reading of the Scriptures, — and the 
celebration of the Lord's supper. It was not 
until the fourth century that set forms were in- 
troduced, and ministers were forbidden to use 
any prayers in the churches except such as were 
composed by able men, or approved by the Syn- 
ods ; and even this innovation, as Shepard re- 
marks, grew out of the gross and palpable igno- 
rance of the ministry in those contentious and 
heretical times, and was enforced in order to 
prevent the scandalous scenes which were com- 
mon in churches where the pastors were incapa- 
ble of preaching or praying to the edification 
of the people. 

By degrees, however, the worship of the 
church, which, from the beginning had been 
very simple, notwithstanding the forms that had 
from time to time been introduced, began, as 
Burnet remarks, to be thought too naked, unless 
•' put under more artificial rules, and dressed up 
with much ceremony," and therefore various 
rites and ceremonies, belter fitted to please the 
eye, and strike the imagination than to promote 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 59 

the godly edifying of the worshiper, were con- 
tinually added. Still there was no universal 
uniformity of worship. Every bishop adopted 
that form which he thought best adapted to the 
times and to the temper of his own people. And 
this diversity continued until the bishop of 
Rome, among other acts of usurpation, pretend- 
ed that it belonged to the mother church, to fur- 
nish a model of doctrine and of worship to 
which all the churches in Christendom ought to 
conform. But even under the dominion of the 
pope, there was great diversity in the forms of 
worship, and absolute uniformity was never ef- 
fected until it was forced upon the English 
church after its separation from Rome. 

The committee of divines who prepared the 
English Liturgy under Edward the Sixth, found 
a great variety of forms, and much diversity in 
respect to worship, existing in the church. In 
the south of England there was the liturgy of 
Sarum ; in the north, that of the Duke of York ; 
in south Wales, that of Hereford ; in north 
Wales, that of Bangor ; in the diocese of Lin- 
coln, one which was peculiar to that see.^ The 
committee collected all these offices, — this " cop- 
per counterfeit coin," — as Shepard calls it, — " of 



* Burnet, Hiat. Reform. II. 71, 72. 



60 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

a well grown antichrist, whereby he cheated the 
churches when he stole away the golden legacy 
of Christ," — with the design of forming out of 
them a new Liturgy which should be used in all 
parts of the country, and by every congregation. 
They thought that entire uniformity, both in 
doctrine and worship, was necessary to the 
purity and peace of the church ; and were de- 
termined that the diversity which had been tol- 
erated in the darkest times of popery, should no 
longer be allowed in protestant England. They 
attempted what was at once unreasonable, unne- 
cessary, and impracticable ; and forged fetters 
for the people, which, if they did not crush the 
life of devotion out of the church, would one day 
be burst asunder with violence and universal 
tumult. Had they drawn up various forms for 
those whose feeble piety needed assistance, and 
left something to the judgment, discretion, and 
conscience of those who had begun to " breathe 
the pure air of the holy Scriptures," the church 
might have been united, and New England re- 
mained for some centuries longer in the posses- 
sion of its original inhabitants. 

The first service book, or Liturgy of Edward 
the Sixth, was gathered from the popish Breviary, 
Ritual, and Missal, with but slight alterations or 
improvements. They did not, says Burnet, 



LIFE OF THOMAS S II E P A R D . G 1 

mend every thing that required it, but left the 
ofiice of the mass as it was, only adding to it 
that which made it a communion. ^ While 
many of the Romish superstitions were omitted, 
some were retained ; the committee going " as 
far as they could in reforming the church," and 
hoping " that they who should come after, would, 
as they might, do more."! They felt, honestly, no 
doubt, that it was a great advantage to the people 
to hear prayers in their native language, rather 
than in an unknown tongue. They wished to 
have the people united ; and aimed to convert 
papists to the English Church by a form of wor- 
ship which should differ as little as possible from 
that to which they had been accustomed. Those 
who desired a real reformation, did all that they 
could ; and those who were papists at heart, 
were satisfied to have a Liturgy which made no 
fundamental change. Among other things, the 
vestments in which the Romish priests officiated, 
were retained against the judgment of many 
pious persons, who thought that these surplices, 
copes, and other rags and symbols of popery, 
should be confined to the pope's wardrobe. It 
was urged that these garments belonged to the 
idolatry of the mass, and had been used to set it 

* Hist. Reform. II. 64. 

t Preface to the Liturgy of Ed. VI. 

VOL. IV. 6 



62 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

off with more pomp and show, and ought not, 
therefore, to be used in a church professing to 
be apostolical. But to this the Reformers re- 
plied, that the priest's garments, under the Mo- 
saic dispensation, were white, and this seemed 
to be a fit emblem of the purity and decency 
becoming priests under the Gospel. Moreover, 
it was said that the clergy were extremely poor, 
and could not afford to dress themselves de- 
cently ; and as the people, vibrating from the 
extreme of blind suomission to the clergy, were 
inclined to despise them, and to make light of 
their sacred functions, if they were to officiate in 
their own garments they would bring the Divine 
offices into contempt. These considerations 
were deemed conclusive, and so it was resolved 
that the use of the popish vestments should be 
continued, and made obligatory upon all offi- 
ciating clergymen. ^ 

A more thorough reformation of the church, — 
a reformation which should leave none of the 
vain pomp, and foolish pageantry of Romanism 
behind, — a reformation which should make all 
the rites, ceremonies, and doctrines of the church 
conformable to the rules laid down by Christ 
and his apostles, and suffer nothing to be re- 



* liurnel, Hiel. Reform II. 75, 76. 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 63 



quired of men but what was clearly sanctioned 
by the aaihority of God's word, — was needed; 
and by many, even by Edward himself, greatly 
desired. And had those in power followed the 
light of the Scriptures, which was then begin- 
ning to shine upon the church, and purged out 
the old leaven of popery, and every thing in 
doctrine or worship which they themselves ac- 
knowledged was unscriptural, there would have 
been no dissent except among the advocates of 
an antichristian hierarchy. * But, as Edward, 
in his vain efforts to realize his idea of a 
reformation, sadly complained, those bishops 
who ought to carry forward this work, " some 
for papistry, some for ignorance, some for age, 
some for their ill name, some for all these," were 
men " unable to execute discipline" and it was 
therefore " a thing unmeet for them to do.""^ 

It was lamentably true, as Mrs. Hutchinson, 
in her interesting Memoirs of her husband 
finely remarks, " that when the dawn of the 
Gospel began to break upon England, after the 
dark night of the papacy, the morning was more 
cloudy there than in other places, by reason of 
the state interest which was mixing and working 
itself into the interests of religion, and which in 



♦ Neale, Hist. Purit., 1, 53. Burnet Hist. Reform. II. 69, 427. 



64 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

the end quite wrought it out. For Henry the 
Eighth, who by his royal authority cast out the 
Pope, did not intend that the people of the land 
should have any ease of oppression, but only 
change their foreign yoke for home-bred fetters, 
dividing the pope's spoils between himself and 
his bishops, who cared not for their father a 
Rome, so long as they enjoyed their patrimony 
and their honors at home under another head.'"^ 

Under the reign of Mary, the sister of Ed- 
ward, the English Church reverted to popery; 
and Protestants, indiscriminately, suffered the 
most severe and unrelenting persecution. 

On the accession of Elizabeth, in 1558, all 
real Protestants in the nation entertained strong 
hopes that the work of reform, which was 
begun, (with whatever motives,) by her father, 
— which was promoted to the extent of his 
power by her brother, Edward, — and which 
had been not only retarded, but reversed by her 
sister Mary of bloody memory, — would be 
resumed and speedily completed. But all hopes, 
founded upon the accession of a professedly 
Protestant Queen, were destined to be sadly dis- 
appointed. 

The nation was, at this time, divided into 



♦ Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson, 1, 105. 



LIFE OF THOMAS SIIEPARD. 65 

three parties of very unequal size ; the Papists, 
the State proiestants, and a small but continually 
increasing number of tj'idy Religious people, who 
were afterwards branded with the name of Pu- 
ritans. "^ The great body of the people of Eng- 
land, says Macauly, had no fixed opinion as to 
the matters of dispute between the churches. 
" Each side had a few enterprizing champions, 
and a few stout-hearted martyrs ; but the nation, 
undetermined in its opinions and feelings, re- 
signed itself implicitly to the guidance of the 
government, and lent to the sovereign for the 
time being, an equally ready aid against either of 
the extreme parties. They were sometimes Pro- 
testant, sometimes Catholic, sometimes half Pro- 
testants, half Catholics. They were in a situation 
resembling that of those borderers, whom Sir 
Walter Scott has described with so much spirit. 

" Who sought the beeves that made their broth, 
In Scotland and in England both." 

The religion of England was thus a mixed 
religion, like that of the Samaritan settlers de- 
scribed in the Second Book of Kings, " who 
feared the Lord, and served their own gods ;" 
like that of the Judaizing Christians, who 



* Memoirs of C!ol. Hutchinson, 1, 106. 



66 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

blended the doctrines of the synagogue with 
those of the church; like that of the Mexican 
Indians, who, for many generations after the 
subjugation of their race, continued to unite with 
the rites learned from their conquerors, the wor- 
ship of the grotesque idols which had been 
adored by Montezuma and Gautemozin." ^ 

All the English clergy, who were really prot- 
estant at heart, made vigorous exertions, in the 
beginning of the reign of Elizabeth, to separate 
the church more entirely from the influence of 
popery; but the Queen, who controlled all the 
affairs of the church, as well as of the state, was 
very differently inclined. Though educated as 
a Protestant, and professing, from her early 
years, to feel strong dislike of the papacy, and 
love to the cause of truth, she was, in opin- 
ion, " little better than half a Protestant." She 
loved magnificence in religion as well as in 
every thing else, and to the last, cherished a 
great fondness for those rites and ceremonies of 
the Romish church which her father had re- 
tained. *' She had no scruple about conforming 
to that church, when conformity was necessary 
to her own safety ; and she had professed, 
when it suited her, to be wholly a Catholic." 



♦ Macauly's Essays, 1, 178, 179. 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 67 

She always kept a crucifix, with wax lights 
burning around it, in her private chapel. The 
service of the church had been too much stripped 
of ornament and display to suit her taste, and its 
doctrines were made too narrow for her opin- 
ions ; in both, therefore, she made alterations, to 
bring them into greater conformity to the pa- 
pacy. Instead of carrying the reformation of 
Edward farther, she often repented that it had 
been carried so far. Accordingly she directed the 
committee of divines,who were appointed in 1559, 
to review the Liturgy of Edward, to strike out 
all passages that could be offensive to the pope, 
and to make the people easy about the corporeal 
presence of Christ in the sacrament, but to say 
not a word in favor of the stricter Protestants, a 
respectable body both of the clergy and the laity, 
who were anxious to bring the reformation to 
that state which Protestants abroad regarded as 
the scriptural model. ^ 

In the year 1559, the Parliament passed an 
" Act for the uniformity of common prayer and 
service of the church, and administration of the 
sacraments;" by one clause of which all eccle- 
siastical jurisdiction was again given up to the 
crown; and the queen was empowered, with 



♦ xVeal, Hisl. Puriu 1, 55, 81, 91, 117. 



68 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

the advice of her commissioners or metropolitan, 
to ordain and publish such other rites or cere- 
monies as might, in her opinion, be most for the 
advancement of God's glory, the edifying of 
his church, and the due reverence of Christ's 
holy mysteries and sacraments ; without which 
clause, reserving to the queen power to make 
what alterations she pleased, she told Arch- 
bishop Parker she would not have passed the 
Act.^ The oppressive use that was made of the 
enormous power thus conferred upon a queen, 
who declared that she hated the Puritans worse 
than she did the Papists, we see in the history 
of those times. Elizabeth was resolved that all 
should conform to her worship, or sufTer the se- 
verest penalties of the law ; and she persecuted 
the conscientious Non-conformists with a cruelty 
which proved that her profession of hatred was 
sincere. She did not burn them, as her sister 
Mary did the heretics of her time, but she sub- 
jected them to hardships more terrible than 
death. 

In the exercise of her boundless prerogative, 
she instituted that engine of persecution, the 
court of " High Commission ;" and no less than 
five courts of this name w^ere established with 



♦Neal'8 Hi«l. Purit. 1, 92, 93, 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 69 

increasing severity."^ The power of these tri- 
bunals was brought to bear with terrible effect 
upon the Puritans. A great many faithful min- 
isters were suspended from their livings, de- 
posed, fined, imprisoned, and their families and 
interests ruined, for refusing to conform to the 
established ritual. They were frequently im- 
prisoned without any previous complaint, and 
sometimes without any knowledge of the charges 
upon which they were arrested ; they were re- 
fused bail, and often suffered a long and tedious 
confinement before they were brought to trial. 
They were not only denied the privilege of trial 
by jury, but condemned without being confronted 
by the witnesses against them. On the most en- 
snaring questions, multiplied and arranged in 
the most artful manner, they were obliged to 
answer instantly upon oath, with the rack or the 
prison distinctly in view. The horrible charac- 
ter of these inquisitorial examinations is well 
described by Lord Burleigh in a letter to Arch- 
bishop Whitgift : " I have read over your 
twenty-four articles, formed in Romish style, of 
great length and curiosity, to examine all man- 
ner of ministers in this time without distinction 
of persons, to be executed, and I find them so 



* Burnet, Hist. Reform. 11. 387. 



70 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

curiously penned, so full of branches and cir- 
cumstances, that I think the Inquisition of Spain 
used not so many questions to comprehend and 
to trap their priests.'"^ 

After the convocation of 1-562, had framed 
the Thirty-nine Articles, and, by a majority of 
one, decided to retain all the ceremonies which 
had given so much offence to every real Prot- 
estant, the bishops began to enforce upon the 
clergy subscription to the Liturgy and Cere- 
monies, as well as to the Articles of faith. 
The penalty for refusing to subscribe was ex- 
pulsion from their parishes. Three hundred 
ministers, of pious and exemplary lives, some of 
them eminent for their talents and learning, re- 
fused to subscribe, and were deprived of their 
livings. Unwilling to separate from a church in 
which the word and the sacraments were in 
substance administered, though disfigured and 
defiled by some popish superstitions, some of 
these deprived ministers continued to preach, as 
they had opportunity, in places where the cere- 
monies could be safely dispensed with, though 
they were excluded of course from all ecclesias- 
tical preferment, t 

Many of the common people were as strongly 

* Pierce, Vindication of the Dissenters, 100. 
t Fuller, Church Hist. B. IX. 72, 102. 



LIFE OF THOMAS S II E I' A R D 



71 



opposed to the use of the clerical vestments, and 
other relics of popery, as the ministers ; and be- 
lieving it to be unlawful to countenance such 
superstitions even by their presence, would not 
enter the churches where they were used. It 
now became a question of great interest and 
importance, for those who were qualified and 
desirous to preach the gospel, as well as for 
those who wished to hear it in its purity, what 
their duty w\as in this posture of affairs. In the 
year 1572 a solemn consultation was held by 
them upon this subject; and after prayer and 
earnest debate respecting the lawfulness and 
necessity of separating from the established 
Church, they came to this result: "That, since 
they could not have the word of God preached, 
nor the sacraments administered, without idola- 
trous o-ear, and since there had been a separate 
congregation in London, and another at Geneva, 
in Queen Mary's time, which used a book and 
order of preaching, administration, and disci- 
pline, which Calvin had approved of, and which 
was free from the superstition of the English 
service, therefore it was their duty, in their 
present circumstances, to break off from the 
public church, and to assemble, as they had op- 
portunity, in private houses, or elsewhere, to 
worship God in a manner that might not offend 



72 LIFE OF THOMAS S H E P A R D . 



the light of their consciences." Another ques- 
tion was discussed at this meeting-, namely, 
whether they should use so much of the com- 
mon prayer and service of the church as was 
not oflensive ; or, since they were cut ofi^ from 
the Church of England, at once to set up the 
purest and best form of worship most con- 
sonant to the sacred Scriptures, and to the prac- 
tice of the foreign reformers. They concluded 
to do the latter ; and accordingly laid aside the 
English Liturgy altogether, and adopted the 
service book used at Geneva. This has been 
called the epoch of the Separation, as the year 
1562 was of No7i-comformity . '^ 

In the year 1581, the Parliament passed an 
Act imposing a fine of £20 a month on every 
person who refused to attend the Common. 
Prayer ; and it was not long before there was 
occasion to inflict this ruinous penalty. The 
afflicted Puritans appealed to the Queen, to both 
houses of Parliament, to the Convocation, and 
to the bishops, but could obtain no relief. Sev- 
eral ministers were imprisoned for the inexcusa- 
ble crime of asking for a little relief from 
the rigor with which they were pursued to ruin. 
Members of Parliament were sent to the Tower 



*Neal, Hiat. Purit. 1. 154. 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 73 

for speaking in favor of the miserable Puritans. 
Bills, passed in the house of commons for their 
relief, were sent for by the Queen, and cancelled : 
and the Parliament was peremptorily forbidden 
to meddle with ecclesiastical affairs. 

Wearied out with this unrelenting persecu- 
tion which drove so many of the most useful 
ministers into obscurity, and discouraged by the 
stern rejection of all their petitions for relief, the 
Puritans began to despair of any further reforma- 
tion of the church by the ruling powers ; and in 
one of their assemblies came to this conclusion, 
" That, since the magistrate could not be induced 
to reform the discipline of the church by so many 
petitions and supplications, therefore, after so 
many years waiting, it was lawful to act without 
him, and to introduce a reformation in the best 
manner they could." "^ 

That portion of the Puritan party, however, 
to which our Fathers belonged, did not vol- 
untarily and schismatically separate from the 
church, like Brown and others, who renounced 
all communion with the establishment, not only 
in ceremonies and prayers, but in hearing the 
word and sacraments, and refused to recognize 



* Neal, 1. 303. 
VOL. IV. 



74 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

it as a true church, or its ministers as true min- 
isters of the Gospel. The Non-conformists gen- 
erally did not deserve the name of Brownists 
which they sometimes bore, through the igno- 
rance or malice of their enemies. They doubt- 
less agreed with the Separatists in opposing the 
tyranny and superstitions of the Hierarchy, and 
in maintaining their right to worship God 
according to the dictates of their consciences 
enlightened by the Scriptures ; but they did not 
acknowledge him as their father, nor, in fact, 
did they agree with him in principle. The final 
exclusion of both parties from the parent church 
was brought about by the same cause, namely, 
the oppression which they suffered from the 
bishops ; but sameness of origin is no proof of 
identity in doctrine. " No marvel," says Cot- 
ton, " if we take it ill to be called Brownists, in 
whole or in part ; for neither in whole nor in 
part do we partake of his schism. He separated 
from churches and from saints ; we, only from 
the world, and that which is of the world. We 
were not baptized into his name, and why should 
we be called by his name ? The Brownists did 
not beget us to God, or to the church, or to their 
schism, — a schism, which as we have lamented 
in them, as a fruit of misguided, ignorant zeal, 



LIFE OF THOMAS S 11 E P A R D . 75 

SO we hav^e ever borne witness against it since 
our first knowledge of it" ^ 

The truth is, that while the Puritans depre- 
cated and dreaded separation from the church, 
and labored in all suitable ways to avoid the ne- 
cessity of going out of it, there was an evident 
determination on the part of the ruling powers 
to get rid of those, whom, for fleeing from their 
tyranny, they condemned as separatists. It was 
the opinion of the stricter reformers generally, 
that they might consistently retain their con- 
nection with the parent church, which they 
acknowledged to be a true church ; — that the 
restraint of arbitrary human laws upon their 
privileges, and the imposition by such laws of 
corrupt members, canons, and ways of worship, 
destroyed neither their rights nor their Christian 
character ; and that since a separation was not 
allowed by the reigning powers, and the organ- 
ization of purer churches within the kingdom 
was impracticable, they ought to remain in the 
church, groaning under their burdens, and la- 
boring for her reformation. But the reigning 
powers were very willing to have these con- 
scientious people excluded from the fellowship 
of a church which they loved with all her faults. 



* Way of the Congregational Churches, p. 10. 



76 LIFE OF THOISIAS SHEPARD. 

Archbishop Sheldon once said to a gentleman, 
who expressed much regret that the door was 
made so strait that many sober ministers could 
not enter, " It is no cause of regret at all ; if we 
had thought so many of them would have con- 
formed, we would have made it still straiter." 

The sin of schism, therefore, which has been 
so often charged upon our congregational Fa- 
thers, does not lie at their door. Laud himself, 
the greatest enemy the Puritans ever had, lays 
it down as a maxim, that " schism is theirs w^hose 
the cause of it is ; and he makes the separation 
who gives the first cause of it, not he that makes 
an actual separation upon a just cause preced- 
ing." " They who talk so much of sects and 
divisions," says Locke, " would do well to con- 
sider whether those are not most authors and 
promoters of sects and divisions, who impose 
creeds and ceremonies, and articles of men's 
making, and make things not necessary to sal- 
vation the necessary terms of communion ; ex- 
cluding and driving from them such as, out of 
conscience and persuasion, cannot assent and 
submit to them, and treating them as if they 
were utter aliens from the church of God, and 
such as were deservedly shut out as unfit to be 
members of it ; who narrow Christianity with 



LIFE OF THOMAS SIIEPARD. 77 

bounds of their own making, which the gospel 
knows nothing of; and often for things, by 
themselves confessedly indiflerent, thrust men 
out of their communion, and then punish them 
for not being of it.'"^ 



* Letters on Toleration. 



7* 



78 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Sketch of English Ecclesiastical history, continued. Accession of 
James I. Hopes of the Puritans. Hampton court conference. 
No change in the Liturgy. Conformity enjoined by proclamation. 
James' speech to his first Parliament. Bishop Bancroft's meas- 
ures. Puritans divided into two classes, Conformists, and Non- 
conformists. Vindication of non-conformists. Story from Roman 
history. John Hampden's refusal to pay ship-money. Grand 
result of persecution. 

The harrassed and helpless Puritans had looked 
forward with hope to the accession of James I. 
He was a member of the Presbyterian church of 
Scotland, and had often professed much sympa- 
thy with them in their afflictions. Not antici- 
pating the change that would be wrought in his 
theological notions by the prelates' maxim, " No 
bishop, no king," nor dreaming of the effect 
which would be produced upon his " northern 
constitution " by the " southern air of the bish- 
op's breath," they expected that he would at 
once relieve them of these burdens. He as- 
cended the throne of England in 1603 ; and 
whether he had always been a hypocrite, or 
whether he became intoxicated by the flattery 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 79 

of the hypocritical bishops, certain it is, that all 
the cheering expectation of those who regarded 
themselves as his brethren in the faith of Christ, 
were at once blasted by the contemptuous and 
oppressive course which he adopted towards 
them. Upon his arrival in England, a petition, 
signed by eight or nine hundred ministers of 
the gospel, " his majesty's most humble sub- 
jects," praying, not for a " disorderly innovation, 
but a godly reformation," in the ceremonies and 
discipline of the church, was presented to him. 

This called forth a bitter attack upon the 
Puritans from the bishops and the Universities, 
and produced a controversy, which after a few 
months was silenced by a royal Proclamation, in 
which the king declared his attachment and 
adherence to the established church ; but gra- 
ciously encouraged the petitioners to hope for a 
conference in which the nature and extent of 
their grievances would be examined. This con- 
ference, or as it should rather be called, the trial 
and condemnation of the Puritans, was held at 
Hampton-Court, on the fourteenth of January, 
1604, and hence called the "Hampton-Court 
Conference." 

A very full, and graphic account of this con- 
ference is found in Fuller's Church History of 
England. The king sat as moderator ; but in 



80 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

the discussion he became the chief speaker in 
defence of the oppressive proceeding of the 
church, and assailed the Non-conformists with 
much coarse, vulgar, and abusive language. 
The church was represented by nearly all the 
bishops and deans ; and Dr. Keynolds, Dr. 
Sparks, Mr. Knewstubs, and Mr. Chadderton, 
men eminent for piety and learning, and held in 
high respect by the people, appeared in behalf 
of the Non-conformists. On the first day of the 
conference, the king made a sort of gratulatory 
address to the bishops and deans by themselves, 
in which he expressed his joy that he had not, 
like Henry VIII., Edward VI., and Queen 
Elizabeth, to alter all things, but merely to con- 
firm what he found well settled ; that he had 
been brought by God's good providence, into the 
promised land, where religion was purely pro- 
fessed, and where he could sit among grave, 
learned, and reverend men, not as before, '■'■else- 
where,^^ (not deigning to name poor Scotland,) 
a king without state, without honor, without 
order, where beardless boys would sometimes 
brave him to his face ; — and declared his pur- 
pose to be like a good physician, to examine 
and try the complaints of the people, and fully 
to remove the occasions of them if scandalous ; 
to cure tliem if dangerous ; to take knowledge of 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEFARD. 81 

them if but frivolous ; thereby to cast a sop into 
the mouth of cerberus, that he might bark no 
more ; and if any thing should be found neces- 
sary to be redressed, that it should be done 
"without any visible alteration." 

On Monday, January 16, the advocates of the 
Non-conformists were admitted to the conference, 
and the king made a " pithy speech," winding 
up with an address to these four opposers of 
conformity, whom he had heard were the 
" most grave, learned, and modest of the ag- 
grieved sort" professing himself ready to hear 
what they had to object, and commanding them 
to begin. 

Dr. Reynolds. " All things disliked or ques- 
tioned may be reduced to these four heads ; 

1. That the doctrine of the church miofht 
be preserved in purity, according to God's word. 

2. That good pastors might be placed in all the 
churches to preach the same. 3. That the 
church government might be sincerely adminis- 
tered according to God's word. 4. That the 
Book of Common Prayer might be fitted to more 
increase of piety. For the first, may your 
majesty be pleased, that the Articles of religion 
concluded on in 1562, be explained where ob- 
scure, and enlarg'ed where defective." And 



82 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

here the doctor referred to Articles 16, 23, and 
25, as needing revision. 

Bishop of London, (Bancroft.) " May it 
please your majesty, that the ancient canon 
may be remembered, schismatici contra Epis- 
copos non sunt audiendi. And there is an- 
other decree of a very ancient council, that 
no man should be permitted to speak against 
that whereunto he hath formerly subscribed^ 
And as for you Dr. Reynolds, and your sociates, 
how much are ye bound to his majesty's clem- 
ency, permitting you, contrary to the statute 
Primo ElzibelhtB, so freely to speak against the 
Liturgy and discipline established. Fain would 
I know the end you aim at, and whether you 
be not of Mr. Cartwright's mind, who affirmed 
that we ought in ceremonies rather to conform 
to the Turks than to the papists. I doubt you 
approve his position, because here appearing 
before his majesty in Turkey gowns, not in 
your scholastic habits, answering to the order of 
the Universities." 

The King. " My lord bishop, something in 
your passion I may excuse, and something I 
must mislike. I may excuse you thus far, that 
I think you have just cause to be moved, in 
respect that they traduce the well settled gov- 
ernment, and also proceed in so indecent a 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 83 

course, contrary to their own pretence, and the 
intent of this meeting. I mislikc your sudden 
interruption of Dr. Reynolds, whom you should 
have suffered to have taken his liberty ; for 
there is no order, nor can be any effectual issue 
of disputation, if each party be not suffered, 
without chopping, to speak at large." .... 

Dr. Reynolds. " The catechism in the Com- 
mon Prayer Book is too brief, and that by Mr. 
Nowell, late dean of Paul's, too long for novices 
to learn by heart. I request therefore, that one 
uniform catechism may be made, and none 
other generally received." 

The King. " I think the Doctor's request 
very reasonable, yet so that the catechism may 
be made in the fewest and plainest affirmative 
terms that may be. And herein I would have 
two rules observed. First, that curious and 
deep questions be avoided in the fundamental 
instruction of a people. Secondly, that there 
should not be so general a departure from the 
papists, that every thing should be accounted 
an error in which we agree with them." 

Dr. Rcy7iolds. " Great is the profanation of 
the Sabbath, and contempt of your majesty's 
proclamation, which I earnestly desire may be 
reformed." 

This motion was unanimously agreed to. 



S4 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

Dr. Reynolds. *' May it please your majesty 
that the Bible be new translated ; such trans- 
lations as are extant not answering the original." 
And he instanced in three particulars. 

Bishop of London. " If every man's humour 
might be followed, there would be no end of 
translating." 

The King. " I profess I could never yet see 
a Bible well translated in English. I wish 
some special pains were taken for an uniform 
translation ; which should be done by the best 
learned in both universities ; then reviewed by 
the bishops ; presented to the privy council ; 
lastly ratified by royal authority, to be read in 
the whole church, and no other. To conclude 
this point, let errors in matters of faith be 
amended, and indifferent things be interpreted, 
and a gloss added to them. A church with 
some faults, is better than an innovation. And 
surely if these were the greatest matters that 
grieved you, I need not have been troubled with 
such importunate complaints." .... 

Dr. Reynolds. " And now to proceed to the 
second general point, concerning the planting of 
learned ministers; I desire they be in every 
parish." 

The King. " I have consulted my bishops 
about it, whom I have found willing and ready 



LIFE OF THOMAS S II E P A R D . 85 



herein. But as subita evacuatio is periculoso, 
so subita mutatio. It cannot presently be per- 
formed, the Universities not affording them." . . T 

Bishop of London. " Because this, I see, is 
a time of moving petitions, may I humbly pre- 
sent two or three to your majesty. First, that 
there may be amongst us a praying ministry, it 
being now come to pass, that men think it the 
only duty of ministers to spend their lime in the 
pulpit. I confess, in a church newly to be 
planted, preaching is most necessary, not so in 
one long established, that prayer should be 
neglected." 

The King. " I like your motion exceeding 
well, and dislike the hypocrisy of our time, who 
place all their religion in the ear, whilst prayer, 
so requisite and acceptable, if duly performed, 
is accounted and used as the least part of re- 
ligion." 

Bishop of London. " My second motion is, 
that until learned men may be planted in every 
congregation, godly homilies may be read 
therein." 

The King. " I approve your motion, espe- 
cially where the living is not sufficient for the 
maintenance of a learned preacher. Also where 
there be multitudes of sermons, there I would 
have homilies read divers times." .... 

VOL. IV. 8 



86 LIFE OF THOIMAS SHEPARD. 

Lord Chancellor. " Livings rather want 
learned men, than learned men want livings ; 
many in the universities pining for want of 
places. I wish, therefore, some may have 
single coats (one living) before others have 
doublets, (pluralities) and this method I have 
observed in bestowing the king's benefices." 

B'lshoj) of London. " I commend your hon- 
orable care that way, but a doublet is necessary 
in cold weather. My last motion is, that pul- 
pits may not be made Pasquils, wherein every 
discontented fellow may traduce his superiors." 

The King. " I accept what you offer, for the 
pulpit is no place of personal reproof. Let them 
complain to me, if injured." .... 

Dr. Reynolds. " I come now to subscrip- 
tions, as a great impeachment to a learned 
ministry, and therefore entreat that it may not 
be exacted as heretofore ; for which many good 
men are kept out, though otherwise willing to 
subscribe to the statutes of the realm, articles of 
religion, and the king's supremacy." .... 

Mr. Knewstuhs. " I take exceptions to the 
cross in baptism, whereat the weak brethren are 
offended, contrary to the counsel of the Apostle, 
Rom. 14, and 2 Cor. 8." 

The KiJig. " Distinge tempora, tt concor da- 
bunt Scriptnrrc. Great the difference between 



LIFE OF THOMAS S II E r A R D . 87 

those times and ours. Then, a church not 
fully settled ; now, ours long established. How 
long will such brethren be weak ? Are not 
forty-five years sufficient for them to grow strong 
in ? Besides, who pretends this weakness ? 
AVe require not the subscription of laics and 
idiots, but of preachers and ministers, who are 
not still, I trow, to be fed with milk, being 
enabled to feed others. Some of them are 
strong enough, if not head-stpong ; conceiving 
themselves able enough to teach him who last 
spake for them, and all the bishops in the land." 

Mr. Knewstuhs. " It is questionable whether 
the church hath power to institute an outward 
significant sign." 

Bishop of London. " The cross in baptism 
is not used otherwise than a ceremony." .... 

The King. " I am exceeding well satisfied 
on this point, but would be acquainted about the 
antiquity of the use of the cross." 

Dr. Reynolds. " It hath been used ever since 
the Apostles' time. But the question is, how 
ancient the use thereof hath been in baptism." 

Dean of Westminster. " It appears out of 
TertuUian, Cyprian, and Origen, that it was 
used in immortalis lavacro.''' 

Bishop of Winchester. " In Constantino's 
time it was used in baptism." 



SS LIFE OF THOIMAS SHEPARD. 

The King. "If so, I see no reason but we 
may continue it." .... 

Mr. Knewstubs. " If the church hath such 
a power, the greatest scruple is, how far the 
ordinance of the church bindeth, without im- 
peaching- Christian liberty." 

The King. " I will not arg-ue that point with 
you, but answer as kings in Parliament, Le Roy 
s' avisera. This is like Mr. John Black, a 
beardless boy, who told me the last conference 
in Scotland, that he would hold conformity with 
his majesty in matters of doctrine, but every 
man for ceremonies was to be left to his own 
liberty. But I will have none of that. I will 
have one doctrine, one discipline, one religion, 
in substance and ceremony. Never speak 
more to that point, how far you are bound to 
obey." 

Dr. Reynolds. " Would that the cross, being 
superstitiously abused in popery, were aban- 
doned, as the brazen serpent was stamped to 
powder by Hezekiah because abused to idola- 
try." 

The King. " Inasmuch as the cross was 
abused to superstition in time of popery, it doth 
plainly imply that it was well used before. I 
detest their courses, who peremptorily disallow 
of all things which have been abused in popery, 



LIFE OF THOINIAS SIIEPARD. 89 

and know not how to answer the objections of 
the papists when they charge us with novehies, 
but by telling them we retain the primitive use 
of things, and only forsake their novel corrup- 
tions. Secondly, no resemblance between the 
brazen serpent, — a material, visible sign, — and 
the sign of the cross made in the air. Thirdly, 
papists, as I am informed, never did ascribe any 
spiritual grace to the cross in baptism. Lastly, 
material crosses, to which the people fell down 
in time of popery, (as the idolatrous Jews to the 
brazen serpent) are already demolished, as you 
desire." 

Mr. Knewstuhs. " I take exception at the 
wearing of the surplice, a kind of garment used 
by the priests of Isis." 

The King. " I did not think, till of late, it 
had been borrowed from the heathen, because 
commonly called a rag of popery. Seeing now 
we border not upon heathens, neither are any 
of them conversant with, or cormorant among 
us, thereby to be confirmed in paganism, I see 
no reason but for comeliness' sake it may be 
retained." 

Dr. Reynolds. " I desire, that according to 
certain provincial constitutions, the clergy may 
have meetings every three weeks." 
8=^ 



90 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

The King. " If you aim at a Scottish Pres- 
bytery, it agreeth as well with monarchy, as 
God and the devil. Then Jack, and Tom, and 
Will, and Dick, shall meet and censure me and 
my council. Therefore I reiterate my former 
speech, Le Roy s'avisera : stay, I pray, for one 
seven years, before you demand, and then if 
you find me grow pursy and fat, I may per- 
chance hearken unto you, for that government 
will keep me in breath, and give me work 
enough. ... I shall here speak of one matter 
more, somewhat out of order, but it skilleth not. 
Dr. Reynolds, you have often spoken for my 
supremacy, and it is well. But know you any 
here, or elsewhere, who like of the present gov- 
ernment ecclesiastical, and dislike my supre- 
macy ? " 

Dr. Reynolds. " I know none." 

The King "My Lords, the bishops, 

I may thank you that these men plead thus for 
my supremacy. They think they cannot make 
good their party against you but by appealing 
unto it, but if once you were out, and they in, I 
know what would become of my supremacy, for 
NO Bishop, no King. I have learned of what 
cut they have been, who preaching before me 
since my coming into England, passed over 
with silence my being supreme governor in 



LIFE OF THOMAS S 11 E r A R D . 91 

causes ecclesiastical. Well, Doctor have you 
any thing else to say ? " 

Dr. Reynolds. " No more, if it please your 
majesty." 

The King. " If this be all your party hath to 
say, I will make them conform themselves, or 
else I will harry them out of the land, or else do 
worse." 

Here ended the second days' conference. The 
third was held on the Wednesday following. 
After some discourse between the king, the 
bishops, and the lords, respecting the proceed- 
ings of the Court of High Commission, the four 
Non-conformists were called in, and such altera- 
tions in the Liturgy, as the bishops, by the ad- 
vice of the king, had made, were read to them, 
and to which their silence, was taken for consent. 

The King. " I see the exceptions against the 
Communion -book, are matters of weakness, there- 
fore if the persons reluctant be discreet, they 
will be won betimes, and by good persuasions : 
if indiscreet, better they were removed, for by 
their factions, many are driven to be papists. 
From you, Dr. Reynolds, and your associates, I 
expect obedience and humility, (the marks of 
honest and good men) and that you would per- 
suade others abroad by your example." 

Dr. Reynolds. " We here do promise to per- 



92 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

form all duties to bishops as reverend fathers, 
and to join with them against the common 
adversary, for the quiet of the church." 

Mr. Chadderton. " I request that the wearing 
of the surplice and the cross in baptism may 
not be urged on some godly ministers in Lan- 
cashire, fearing, if forced unto them, many won 
by their preaching of the gospel, will revolt to 
popery." 

The King. "It is not my purpose, and I dare 
say it is not the bishop's intent, presently, and 
out of hand, to enforce these things, without 
fatherly admonitions, conferences, and persua- 
sions, premised." . . . 

Mr. Knewstubs. " I request the like favor of 
forbearance to some honest ministers in Suffolk. 
For it will make much against their credit in 
the country, to be now forced to the surplice and 
cross in baptism." 

Archbishop of Canterbury. " Nay sir." 

The King. " Let me alone to answer him. 
Sir, you show yourself an uncharitable man. 
We have here taken pains, and, in the end, have 
concluded on unity and uniformity, and you 
forsooth, must prefer the credits of a few private 
men before the peace of the church. This is 
just the Scotch argument, when any thing was 
concluded which disliked some humors. Let 



LIFE OF THOMAS S 11 E T A R D . 93 

them either conform themselves shortly or they 
shall hear."'^ 

After a few words respecting ambuling and 
sitting- communion, this famous, — if it should not 
rather be called infamous, — conference ended ; 
and with it, all the hopes which the Puritans 
had cherished of relief from the intolerable 
bondage in which they were held by the bishops. 
Fuller remarks, that in this conference some 
thought that James "went above himself ;" that 
the Bishop of London, the violent Bancroft, " ap- 
peared even with himself;" and that Dr. Rey- 
nolds "fell much beneath himself." But we 
must remember that the report of those pro- 
ceedings was originally made by a professed 
enemy of the Puritan Divines, who was as 
much inclined to flatter the pedantic vanity of 
the king, and to glorify the bishops, as he was to 
misrepresent the character and the arguments of 
those whom he hated. " When the Israelites go 
down to the Philistines to whet all their iron tools, 
no wonder if they set a sharp edge on their own, 
and a blunt one on their enemies' weapons," as 
Fuller charitably observes. The Archbishop of 
Canterbury went so far as to declare his belief 
that his majesty spoke by the especial assistance 
of God's Spirit ; and Bancroft, " appeared only 



* Fuller's Church History, B. x. pp. 7-21. 



9-1 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEFARD. 

even with himself;" when he exclaimed, "I pro- 
test that my heart meltelh with joy, that Al- 
mighty God, of his singular mercy, hath given 
us such a king, as, since Christ's time, the like 
halh not been." But Sir J. Harrington, who was 
present, remarked, in reference to the archbish- 
op's blasphemous flattery, that the spirit by which 
that king spoke, was "rather foul-mouthed;" 
that he used expressions which it would not 
be decent to repeat ; — and that he resorted 
to abuse rather than argument, bidding the pe- 
titioners, to " away with their sniveling." James 
himself, in a letter to some nameless Scotch cor- 
respondent, describes the part he played in the 
conference in the following style, " We have 
kept such a re veil with the Puritans here this 
two days, as was never heard the like. Quhaire 
I have pepered them as soundlie as yee have 
done the Papists thaire. It were no reason, 
that those that will refuse the airy sign of the 
cross after baptism, should have their purses 
stuflfed with any more solid and substantial 

crosses I have such a book of theirs as 

may well convert infidels, but it shall never con- 
vert me, except by turning me more earnestly 
against thayme." 

We can see clearly enough, through all the 
clouds of prejudice and passion in which that 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 95 

scene has been enveloped, that the demands of 
the Puritans were perfectly reasonable, and pre- 
sented in the humblest and most unobjectionable 
manner ; while on the part of the king and the 
bishops, there was not even the appearance of a 
desire to heal the divisions of the church by- 
modifying the arbitrary and tyrannical measures 
which produced them ; but on the contrary, a 
manifest determination to make the Puritans 
conform to every thing contained in a semi- 
popish liturgy, or as James himself once called 
it, " An ill-said mass in English," by the terror 
of fines, imprisonment, and banishment from 
their country. This conference seems to have 
been a providential opportunity for healing the 
distractions of the church, and of establishing a 
true Christian union upon the basis of God's 
word. But it was wickedly lost through the 
worldly policy of the bishops, and the arbitrary 
principles and cowardice of the king, who flat- 
tered the hierarchy to secure its support of the 
throne, and feared the Puritans for their resist- 
ance to his sovereign will. Had the ruling 
powers at this time followed the advice of some 
of the wisest and most pious divines in their 
own church, or the example of the Reformers 
abroad who took the Scriptures and not a cor- 
rupt traditionj for their guide in the work of 



96 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

reformation, they might have prevented a divis- 
ion as disgraceful as it was disastrous in its con- 
sequences to them. 

But they, in their blindness, deemed it best to 
retain every thing which troubled the conscien- 
ces of the most devout portion of the church. 
The only good thing done by them at this con- 
ference, was consenting to a new translation of 
the Bible, or rather a careful revision and com- 
parison of all the translations then in use. A 
very few trifling alterations in the prescribed 
service were agreed upon by the king and the 
bishops ; and then a royal proclamation was is- 
sued commanding all the people to conform to 
the doctrines and discipline of the Established 
Church as the only form to be tolerated in the 
kingdom, and admonishing the malcontents 
not to expect any farther alteration or relief. 
The Common Prayer-book was accordingly 
printed with these inconsiderable amendments, 
and the proclamation prefixed, like the cherubim 
with flaming sword guarding the tree of life. 

James opened his first Parliament with a 
characteristic speech, in which he acknowledged 
the Romish church to be, "our Mother Church," 
— and professed his unwillingness to meet the 
papists half way for the sake of bringing about 
a union of the two religions, at .the same time 



LIFE OK THOMAS S H E P A K L) . 97 

denouncing the Puritans as a " sect insufierable 
in any well governed commonwealth." The 
Convocation which sat at the same time, were 
very active in laying snares, and preparing 
weapons for the unfortunate sect thus placed 
under the curse of the realm. They drew up a 
book of one hundred and forty canons, accord- 
ing to which, suspension and deprivation being 
regarded as too light a punishment for the enor- 
mous sin of non-conformity, all who refused to 
conform were, ipso facto excommunicated and 
cast out, as heathen and publicans, from the 
fellowship and protection of both church and 
state. By these canons all Non -conformists were 
rendered incapable of bringing actions at law 
for the recovery of their legal debts ; were by 
process of the civil courts, to be imprisoned for 
life, or until they should give satisfaction to the 
church ; were to be exposed to every form of 
temporal evil in this world, and to be denied 
Christian burial after death ; and if the power 
of the bishops had extended into the other world, 
would have been eternally excluded from the fel- 
lowship of just men made perfect. These canons 
were ratified by the king, who at the same time 
commanded that they should be diligently ob- 
served and executed ; that every parish minister 
should read them over once every year in his 

VOL. IV. 9 



98 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

church before divine service ; and that all per- 
sons having ecclesiastical jurisdiction, should see 
them put in execution, and not fail to inflict the 
full penalty upon every one who should pur- 
posely violate or neglect them.^ 

On the death of Archbishop Whitgift, who, 
though an enemy and a persecutor of the Puri- 
tans, was comparatively a moderate man, Ban- 
croft, Bishop of London, who was the most 
irrascible and abusive speaker, next to the king, 
in the Hampton Court Conference, succeeded to 
the arch-episcopal chair. Bancroft was a man 
of a savage temper, and most arbitrary princi- 
ples ; and what Whitgift strove to accomplish 
by comparatively mild measures, he resolved to 
do at once by an exterminating rigor. He re- 
vived the persecution with such severity, that in 
160-5, the year of Mr. Shepard's birth, about 
three hundred ministers were silenced, turned 
out from their parishes, or otherwise punished 
for refusing subscription ; and yet of the suffer- 
ers in eight bishoprics, no account was taken. 
These ministers had preached in the church 
from ten to thirty years ; and in many churches, 
the ceremonies had been laid aside for a long 
time. Some of these ministers were excommu- 
nicated and imprisoned, and others forced into 

* Beiinet, Mem. ch. 3. Neal Hist. Piiril. 1, 422. 



LIFE F THOMAS S II E 1' A R D . 99 

exile, — " harried out of the kingdom," — as James 
insolently threatened they should be, if they did 
not conform. 

Under the intolerant measures now adopted 
and inflexibly adhered to, many good men strove 
to conform, — and succeeded in convincing them- 
selves that they were doing God's service, in con- 
forming to the established order. Hence those 
who most earnestly desired to see a thorough 
reformation of the church, were divided into two 
parties, distinguished at the time, and well 
known since, as Conformists and Non-conformists. 
Of the first class was Dr. Reynolds, who, at the 
Hampton Court Conference, solemnly promised, 
" to perform all duties to bishops, as reverend 
fathers, and to join with them against the com- 
mon adversary for the quiet of the church." 
Dr. Sparks, also, another of the representatives of 
Puritanism in that unhappy conference, to which 
the petitioners were called, " not to have their 
scruples removed," but to hear the king's 
"pleasure propounded," went home a convert 
to the doctrine of the bishops, and soon after 
published a Treatise of Unity and Uniformity, 
"Henceforward," says Fuller, "many cripples 
in conformity were cured of their former halting 
therein, and those who knew not their own, till 
they knew the king's mind in this matter, for 



100 LIFE OF THOMAS SIIEPARD. 

the future, quietly digested the ceremonies of 
the church." Of the latter class were our con- 
gregational fathers, who were willing to suffer 
the loss of all things, rather than conform to a 
ritual of human origin, imposed with irresistible 
human power. 

It has been often urged in reproach of the 
Non-conformists, that while they cordially con- 
sented to the doctrines of the church, which 
were the onl}?" essential things, they obstinately 
refused to perform a few ceremonies, which were 
in themselves indifferent ; and, professing to 
honor the church as their " dear mother," 
blindly fled from her communion, and put her 
very existence in jeopardy for the sake of getting 
rid of an " airy cross," and some genuflexions 
which could do no one any harm. 

There would be some appearance of justice in 
this charge, if the ceremonies in question had 
been regarded, at that time by any part}'', as 
indifferent things. But nothing is more evident 
than that both the government and the Puritans, 
considered the question of absolute and universal 
conformity a question of life and death. The 
only ground upon which the church can be in 
any degree justified in its unyielding demands, 
is, that she regarded every part of the prescribed 
Liturgy essential. If those rites and ceremonies 



LIFE OF THOMAS S H E 1' A li D . 101 

were, in the judgment of the g-overnment, really 
indiflerent matters, it was most unjust and cruel 
on their part, to command every adult person in 
England to practice them against the scruples 
of even a weak conscience, upon pain of ruinous 
fines, imprisonment, or perpetual banishment. 
It is said that Dr. Burgess, once preaching be- 
fore King James, and touching lightly upon the 
ceremonies, related the following story, by which 
he intended to illustrate, in a quiet way, the in- 
humanity of the bishops in persecuting the Puri- 
tans. Au2:ustus Caesar was once invited to 
dinner by a Roman senator, who was distin- 
guished for his wealth, power, and magnificent 
living. As the Emperor entered the house, he 
heard a great outcry ; . and upon looking about, 
he saw several persons dragging a man after 
them with the design, apparently of killing him, 
while the poor fellow was begging most piteous- 
ly for mercy. The Emperor demanded the 
cause of that violence, and was told that their 
master had condemned this man to the fish- 
ponds for breaking a very valuable glass. 
He commanded a stay of the execution ; and 
when he came into the house, asked the senator 
whether he had glasses that were worth a man's 
life ? He answered, being a great connoisseur 
in such things, that he owned glasses which he 
9* 



102 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

valued at the price of a province. The Emperor 
desired to see these marvelous glasses, and was 
taken to a room where a large number were 
displayed. He saw that they were indeed beau- 
tifiil to the eye, but knowing that they had 
been, and might still be, the cause of much 
mischief, he dashed them all to atoms, with this 
expression, " Better that all these perish than 
one man." The bishops, however, for whose 
especial benefit this story was told, were greatly 
enraged, instead of being convinced by the illus- 
tration. They thought the ceremonies worth the 
lives of a thousand men ; and they succeeded 
in getting the doctor silenced for daring to think 
otherwise. 

On the other hand, the non-conforming Puri- 
tans, if they could have regarded these things as 
indifferent in themselves, could no longer regard 
them as indifferent when they were imposed by 
the State, under severe penalties, as essential to 
the acceptable worship of God. They did not 
object to the use of forms of prayer ; there were 
many things in the Common Prayer-book which 
they could use with a good conscience ; and if 
any latitude had been allowed, they would never 
have separated from the church. But they saw 
the mischief of human authority in relation to 
religious worship ; and could not acknowledge 



LIFE OF THOMAS S 11 E P A R IJ . 103 



that the magistrate had power to impose a body 
of mere ceremonies, upon those whom Christ 
had freed from the bondage of the ceremonial 
law. " We reject," says one of those Non-con- 
formists, *' those forms of prayer and of public 
worship which are imposed upon the consciences 
of men by human power, as essential parts of 
divine service. Although as to the matter of 
them they might be lawfully observed, yet by 
the manner in which they are introduced, they 
become the instruments of cruelty, and occas- 
ions of outrageous tyranny over the best and 
most worthy sons of the church."^ 

And when we remember that this book con- 
tained the only form of worship allowed in En- 
gland, — that every part of it, without exception, 
was made a matter of necessity and not of 
choice, — that not only the ministers were re- 
quired to use the whole of it, but that every 
adult person in the kingdom was obliged to be 
present at the celebration of this service, and to 
take an active part in the worship by repeating 
a certain form of words, and performing certain 
rites and ceremonies, — the refusal of our fathers 
to conform seems not only defensible, but imper- 
atively demanded by their higher relation to 
Christ. For, as Shepard well observes, the 



* G. Apol. ch. 7. Q. 2. 



104 LIKE UF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

very yielding of conformity to such a service 
would " miserably cast away the liberty pur- 
chased by Christ for his people, — enthral the 
churches to Anti-christ, — and lift up the power 
of Anti-christ in his tyrannous usurpation upon 
the churches of Christ ! "=^ 

When Hampden, a few years later, resisted 
the illegal requirement of Charles I., with re- 
spect to ship-money, and for a few shillings was 
willing to plunge the nation into a civil war, he 
was hailed as a noble champion of civil liberty. 
Why then should our fathers be branded as 
narrow-minded bigots, and wicked disturbers of 
the peace of the church, for refusing obedience 
to demands which no human governor has a 
right to make, and asserting a liberty guaranteed 
by the great charter of the kingdom of God ? 

But the Puritans did not consider the Common 
Prayer-book, in all its parts, a matter of indif- 
ference in itself and to be resisted only because 
it was imposed by the secular power without 
warrant from the Scriptures. While they freely 
acknowledged that God might be acceptably 
worshiped by forms of prayer, they regarded 
this particular book as unsuitable for public wor- 
ship, and as a grievous burden upon their con- 



* Treatise of Liturgies, Preface. 



LIFE OF THOMAS S II E I' A R D . 105 

sciences. The grounds of their objection to the 
use of this liturgy, were, that it was taken from 
the Roman Mass-book, which had been the 
means, in their opinion, of filling the church 
with idolatry and superstition ; and though 
purged from some of the greater abominations 
of the mass, could not be used without sanction- 
ing the idolatrous worship of Rome ; — that it 
claimed for human rulers unlimited power to 
decree rites and ceremonies for the church, — a 
power which obviously belongs to Christ alone 
as the Lord and lawgiver of the church ; — that 
it set apart many holidays, and instituted feasts 
which were enforced in the spiritual courts by 
civil penalties ; — that it annexed human ceremo- 
nies to certain parts of worship which savored 
strongly of idolatry, and therefore not to be toler- 
ated in the church, — as the surplice, — the sign of 
the cross in baptism, — ^kneeling before the bread 
and wine in the Lord's supper, &c. Kneeling 
at the sacrament was especially offensive to 
them, because it was a gesture required by the 
papists as an act of adoration, the object of which 
was the real body of Christ, supposed to be pres- 
ent in the bread and wine. " The Mass," says 
John Drury, " is the greatest idol in the world, 
and the act of kneeling was brought in at the 
popish communion to worship that idol. We 



106 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 



oufht not to symbolize with them in that act of 
worship; we ought not to follow the corruption 
of an ordinance when we have Christ's practice 
made known to us. It is not lawful to mix the 
acts of God's true worship with the chief act of 
an idol worship, such as is kneeling at the mass. 
For the meaning and purpose of kneeling is 
adoration ; the object of adoration is the body 
and blood of Christ, supposed to be in the 
elements. But if we believe no such real pres- 
ence as they have fancied, then we make void 
the object of adoration, and consequently the act 
intended towards it is disannulled also."^ 

We see then that conformity was not a ques- 
tion of mere expediency, but of right and wrong, 
of obedience and sin. " We are not," said our 
Fathers, " to dissemble with God nor men. Our 
separation were needless and sinful, if we did 
not consider conformity sinful in some degree. 
And in that case to practice it, is to tell the world, 
if sincerity be left among men, that we account 
it all lawful or tolerable to us, though not simply 
eligible. We therefore dare not by practice, vio- 
late our consciences, and so destroy our avowed 
principles. Nor will persons of any candor and 
christian charity, think this a humor of opposi- 



* Model of Church Govt., pp. 40, 11. 1648. 



LIFE OF T H O 31 A S S H li 1' A li D . 107 

tion ; for they knew that among us, have been, 
and are, men of sober minds, and tried integrity ; 
men of good sense and learning; men of great 
ability and usefulness in church and state ; men 
who relished also the comforts of their life and 
families as others do ; men who greatly valued 
an opportunity of serving their generation, and 
their dear Redeemer in the gospel ministry : men 
who would not for trifles expose themselves to 
poverty, contempt, obscurity, prisons, merciless 
fines, exile, and death itself. This were an 
humor indeed.'"^ 

It is sad to contemplate the intolerant and op- 
pressive measures adopted by one part of the 
church against another, and to witness the ca- 
lamitous effects which resulted from the perse- 
cuting spirit of those times, — the fines, imprison- 
ments, banishments, deaths, — by which the faith 
and patience of the saints were so severely tried ; 
but at the same time it is instructive and con- 
soling to direct our thoughts to what time has 
shown to have been the ultimate design of Prov- 
idence, in permitting those disastrous scenes to 
exist. A new world was to be created. A pure 
church was to be planted far away from the 
enormous corruptions and abuses of old Christ- 



* Letter of Non-Conforming Ministers, p. 7, 1701. 



108 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

endom ; and persecution was to people the wil- 
derness with a chosen generation, — a royal 
priesthood, — who should worship God in the 
spirit, and magnify the divine law by holy obedi- 
ence. 

The authors of the Epistle dedicatory to 
Shepard's Clear Sun-shine of the Gospel upon 
the Indians of New England, have given a 
beautiful expression to this thought. " That 
God who often makes men's evil of sin, service- 
able to the advancement of the riches of his 
grace, has shown that he had merciful ends in 
the malicious purpose, which drove our fathers 
from England. As he suffered Paul to be 
cast into prison, to convert the jailor; — to be 
shipwrecked atMelita, to preach to the barba- 
rians ; — so he suffered their way to be stopped 
up here, and their persons to be banished hence, 
that he might open a passage for them in the 
wilderness, and make them instruments to draw 
souls to him, who had been so long estranged 
from him. ... It was the end of the adversary 
to suppress, but God's to propagate the Gospel : 
their's to smother and put out the light, God's 
to communicate and disperse it to the uttermost 

corners of the earth And if the 

dawn of the morning be so delightful, what will 
the clear day be ? If the first fruits be so pre- 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 109 

cious, what will the whole harvest be ? If some 
beginnings be so full of joy, what will it be 
when God shall perform his whole work, when 
the whole earth shall be full of the knowledge 
of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea, and 
east and west shall sing together the song of the 
Lamb.'"^ 



* Clear Sun-shine, Preface, p. 3, 4. 



VOL. IV. 10 



110 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 



CHAPTER V 



Mr. Shepard al Mr. Weld's. Dr. Wilson's Lecture. Nature of a 
Lecture-ship. I\Ir. Shepard requested by the ministers of Essex to 
accept the Lecture. Lecture established for three years at Earles- 
Colne. First Sermon. Method of preaching. Effect of his minis- 
try. Opposition arises. Lecture transferred to Towcester. Con- 
tinues to preach at Earles-Colne. Summoned to London by Bishop 
Laud. Interview with the bishop. Silenced. Character and death 
ofLaud. Studies the subject of conformity at Earles-Colne. Laud 
comes into the County of Essex. Second interview with the 
bishop. Commanded to leave the place. 



Such, as has been described in the preceding 
chapters, was the religious condition of Eng- 
land, — and such the prospects of pious young 
men who desired to devote themselves to the 
work of the ministry, — at the time when Thom- 
as Shepard was waiting at Mr. Weld's in Essex 
for his Master's degree, " solicitous what would 
become of him." But while he was thus wait- 
ing in painful suspense, the Lord was in secret 
preparing a place and a work for him ; so that 
when he was ready and prepared to enter upon 
his chosen employment, he was unexpectedly 
called to preach the gospel under circumstances 



LIFE OF THOMAS SIIEPARD.lll 

most favorable to his usefulness, though not in a 
way to gratify a worldly ambition, or to awaken 
hope of preferment in the national establishment. 
Just at this time Dr. Wilson, a pious physician, 
a brother, it is supposed, of John Wilson, after- 
wards pastor of the first church in Boston, had 
resolved to establish a Lecture in some town in 
that county, with an income of thirty pounds a 
year for its maintenance ; — a Lecture which Mr. 
Weld and several other ministers, with the con- 
currence as it appears of Dr. Wilson, urged Mr. 
Shepard to accept, and to " set it up in a great 
town in Essex, called Cogshall." 

In order to understand the position and duties 
of a Lecturer at that period, as distinguished 
from the office and work of a clergyman, it may 
be necessary to give a brief account of the na- 
ture of the Lectures here referred to, and of the 
circumstances in which they had their origin. 
Many parts of the country," says Carlyle, " be- 
ing thought by the more zealous among the 
Puritans insufficiently supplied w'ith able and 
pious preachers, a plan was devised in 1624 for 
raising by subscription, among persons grieved 
at the state of matters, a fund for buying in such 
" lay impropriations " as might offer themselves, 
for supporting good ministers therewith in des- 
titute places, and for otherwise encouraging the 



112 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEFARD. 

ministerial work. The originator of this scheme 
was Dr. Preston, a man of great celebrity and 
influence in those days. His scheme was found 
good. The wealthy London merchants, almost 
all of them Puritans, took it up, and by degrees 
the wealthier Puritans over England at large. 
Considerable funds were subscribed for this ob- 
ject, and vested in '' Feofees," who afterwards 
made some noise in the world under that name. 
They gradually purchased some Advowsions, or 
Impropriations, such as came to market, and 
hired or assisted in hiring a great many Lectur- 
ers. These Lecturers were persons not gener- 
erally in full priest's orders, being scrupulous 
about the ceremonies, but in deacon's, or some 
other orders, with permission to preach, or " lec- 
ture " as it was called; whom accordingly we 
find lecturing in various places, under various 
conditions, in the subsequent years ; often in 
some market town, on market-days, on Sunday 
afternoons as supplemental to the regular priest, 
when he might be idle, or given to white and 
black surplices ; or as " running lecturers," now 
here, now there over a certain dstrict. They 
were greatly followed by the serious part of the 
community, and gave proportional offence in 
other quarters. In a few years they had risen 
to such a height, that Laud took them seriously 



LIFE OF THOMAS S H E P A K D . 113 

in hand, and with patient detail hunted them 
mostly out ; nay, brought the Feofees themselves 
and their whole enterprise into the Star-Cham- 
ber, and thefe, with emphasis enough and heavy 
damages, amid huge clamor from the public, 
suppressed them."^ 

The Lecturer of Dr. Wilson, which Mr. 
Weld and other Puritan ministers of Essex 
were anxious that Mr. Shepard should accept, 
was one of the kind here described. Of so 
much importance did they deem this Lecture, 
and so much confidence did they feel in Mr. 
Shepard's piety and ability to render it useful to 
the people, that they set apart a day of fasting 
and prayer for the purpose of seeking divine di- 
rection as to the place where it should be estab- 
lished. Towards the evening of that day, they 
began to consider whether Mr. Shepard should 
go to Cogshall or to some other town in that re- 
gion. Most of the ministers were in favor of 
establishing the Lecture at Cogshall, because it 
was a town of considerable importance, — had 
great need of evangelical preaching, — and was, 
so far as they knew, the only place where it was 
especially desired. Mr. Hooker, however, ob- 
jected to this place, on the ground that Mr. 



♦ Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell, 1. 50. 

10^ 



114 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEFARD. 

Shcpard was altogether too young and inexpe- 
rienced for such a work at that time ; and more- 
over that the clergyman of Cogshall was a cun- 
ning, malicious old man, an enemy of the Puri- 
tans, who, although he was apparently in favor 
of having a Lecture established there, yet would 
be likely to give a young and inexperienced 
man like Mr. Shepard, a great deal of trouble ; 
— remarking in his quiet way, that it was al- 
ways " dangerous and uncomfortable for little 
birds to build under the nests of old ravens and 
kites." 

While the ministers were actually engaged in 
discussing this subject, the people of Earles- 
Colne, a town in the same county, having heard 
that a free Lecture was to be established some- 
where in the county of Essex, and believing 
that it would be a great blessing to that " poor 
town," sent a deputation to Tarling, where the 
ministers were assembled, who arrived just as 
the question was about to be decided, with an 
urgent request that the Lecture might be estab- 
lished there for three years, that being the time 
to which its continuance in any place was limit- 
ed ; because it was presumed by the founders 
that if the Lecture was to be the means of doing 
any good, its beneficial influence would become 
manifest within three years, and then if it was 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 115 

taken away the people in a populous town 
would be willing to maintain it themselves ; — 
but if, on the other hand, no good was accom- 
plished in so long a time, it would be a waste of 
the funds to continue it in that place any longer. 
In view of this earnest, and as it seemed, provi- 
dential application, the ministers felt somewhat 
as Peter did, when after anxiously meditating 
upon the vision he had seen upon the house-top, 
the messengers of Cornelius presented them- 
selves with a request which he interpreted as a 
Divine intimation of his duty. They at once 
decided that the Lecture should go to Earles- 
Colne ; advising Mr. Shepard to accept this 
providential call, and if after preaching there 
awhile, he found the people favorably disposed 
towards him, and desirous of his services, to re- 
main in that place during the time fixed for the 
continuance of the Lecture there. 

Mr. Shepard saw clearly that it was his duty 
to comply with the advice of his friends. This 
appointment opened to him a door of usefulness 
earlier and more efTectually than he had antici- 
pated, without, at the same time, subjecting him 
to many of those annoyances to which the regu- 
lar ministers were constantly liable ; and though 
the salary connected with this Lecture was 
small, it was sufficient to enable him, for the 



116 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

present, to subsist with comparative comfort. It 
was a very hopeful undertaking. And it was 
no small honor for one who, in his own opinion, 
was " so young, so weak, inexperienced, and 
unfit for so great a work," to be called into this 
difficult service "by twelve or sixteen judicious 
ministers of Christ." He moreover regarded it 
as a manifestation of Divine goodness, never to 
be forgotten, that when he "might have been 
cast away upon some blind place, without the 
help of any ministry " about him ; or have been 
" sent to some gentleman's house, to be corrupt- 
ed with the sins in it," the Lord should place 
him in the best county in England, viz. Essex," 
and locate him " in the midst of the best minis- 
try in the country, by whose monthly fasts and 
conferences " he found much assistance and en- 
couragement in his arduous work. 

Accordingly he resolved to go to Earles- 
Colne. After taking his degree of Master of 
Arts, in 1627, and receiving deacon's orders, 
" sinfully," as he afterwards thought, of the 
Bishop of Peterborough, he repaired to the scene 
of his future labors. He was cordially wel- 
comed and entertained by a Mr. Cosins, a 
schoolmaster in the town, " an aged, but a godly 
and cheerful Christian," the only person, indeed, 
in the place who seemed to have " any godli- 



LIFE OF THOMAS S H E P A R D . 1 17 

ness," by whose counsel, sympathy, and co- 
operation, the spirit of the young and timid 
preacher was greatly refreshed and strength- 
ened. His first sermon was upon 2 Cor. 5 : 19, 
and was so acceptable to the people, that they 
united in giving him a formal invitation in 
writing to remain and lecture to them agreeably 
to the terms of his appointment. From this 
unanimity and earnestness, so unusual in those 
times, he inferred that it was the Lord's will 
that he should labor in that place. Still he 
was fearful that he should not be suffered by the 
superior powers to pursue his work in peace. In 
order, therefore, to avoid molestation from that 
quarter, he " sinfully," according to his own 
subsequent interpretation of the act, procured a 
license to officiate as a lecturer, from the Regis- 
ter of the Bishop of London, before his name 
and character were much known; a license, 
which for a time, enabled him to preach without 
hindrance or suspicion on the part of the 
bishop and his officers. 

Mr. Shepard entered upon his work at Earles- 
Colne, with great zeal. His sole object in 
preaching, was, according to the commission 
given to the apostle, to turn his hearers " from 
darkness to light, and from the power of Satan 
unto God." In order to accomplish this end 



118 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

most effectually and speedily, he endeavored 
first of all, to " show the people their misery ; " 
next, to exhibit " the remedy, Jesus Christ ; " 
and finally, to show " how they should walk 
answerable to his mercy, being redeemed by 
Christ." This course of preaching, accom- 
panied as it evidently was, by a sincere, earn- 
est, and prayerful spirit in the preacher, — " the 
Lord putting forth his strength in my extreme 
weakness," — soon began to produce the most 
happy results. The people who had walked in 
darkness, and among whom there seemed to be 
but one man who " had any godliness," were 
enlightened in respect to the distinguished doc- 
trines of the gospel, and many, both in Earles- 
Colne, and in the region around, were converted. 
Among the most valuable fruits of his ministry 
were the two sons of Mr. Harlakenden, Rich- 
ard and Roger ; the latter of whom came to 
New England with his spiritual father, and 
was of great service to him in his labors here. 

Such a ministry as this, lifting up its voice 
like a trumpet amidst the smooth preaching and 
dead formalism of the church, showing the 
people their transgression, and making them 
feel their misery, could not, at that period, be 
long tolerated by the ruling powers. " Satan 
began to rage." " The commissaries, registers, 



LIFE OF THOMAS S H E I' A R D . 119 

and others, began to threaten the faithful 
preacher, taking it for granted that he was a 
"non-conformable man," whose month must be 
stopped ; thougli at that time, not having 
studied the subject of conformity, he " w^as 
not resolved either way, but was dark in 
these things." But notwithstanding the violent 
opposition that arose on all sides, "the Lord, 
having work to do in the place," sustained him, 
" a poor ignorant thing," against all the threat- 
enings of the commissaries, and the " malice 
of the ministers round about," and " by strange 
and wonderful means," kept him in the field 
until the work was done. 

When the three years for which the lecture 
had been established at Earles-Colne were ex- 
pired, the people, having learned to appreciate 
the blessing of a faithful ministry, were unwill- 
ing to part with the instrument of so much good, 
and at once raised by subscription a salary of 
about forty pounds a year, to induce him to 
remain wdth them. This unexpected movement 
satisfied him that it was his duty to continue 
his ministrations in that place ; and, as the 
lecture must be transferred to some other town, 
he used his influence to have it established at 
Towcester, — the place of his birth, — "the worst 
town in the world," in his opinion, believing 



120 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

that he could confer no greater benefit upon 
his " poor friends " there, than by sending to 
them a faithful preacher of the gospel. Dr. 
Wilson consented to Mr. Shepard's proposal, 
and Mr. Stone, afterwards the able collegue of 
Mr. Hooker, both at Cambridge and Hartford, 
was sent with the lecture to Towcester, " where 
the Lord was with him," and many souls were 
converted by his faithful ministrJ^ 

Mr. Shepard continued to preach at Earles- 
Colne for about six months after the transfer of 
the lecture to Towcester ; when the storm, 
which had been long gathering, burst upon him, 
and drove him from his work in that place. 
Laud, having succeeded Bancroft as Archbishop 
of London, began to look sharply after these lec- 
turers, and to enforce entire conformity to the es- 
tablished ceremonies with a rigor beyond that of 
any of his predecessors. It was not likely that 
such a man as Shepard could long escape perse- 
cution, when a very worthy minister was called 
before the Court of High Commission and se- 
verely censured for merely expressing in a ser- 
mon his belief that the night was approaching, 
because " the shadows were so much longer than 
the body, and ceremonies more in force than 
the power of godliness." Accordingly on the 
16th of December, 1630, Mr. Shepard was 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 121 

summoned to London, like a culprit, to answer 
for his conduct at Earles-Colne. The bishop 
did not ask him whether he had subscribed, 
or was willing to subscribe and conform, but 
taking it for granted that he was an obstinate 
Non-conformist, after abusing Dr. Wilson for 
setting up a lecture, and the lecturer for daring 
to preach in his diocese, forbade the further 
exercise of his ministerial gifts in that bishop- 
rick ; and moreover threatened the poor man 
with a speedy and violent interruption if he 
attempted to preach any where else. 

This interview between the haughty bishop, 
and the humble preacher, is best described in 
the language of the sufferer himself. " As soon 
as I came in the morning, about eight of the 
clock, falling into a fit of rage, he asked me 
what degree I had taken in the University. I 
answered him that I was Master of Arts. He 
asked, of what college ? I answered of Em- 
manuel. He asked how long I had lived in his 
diocese. I answered, three years and upwards. 
He asked, who maintained me all this while, 
charging me to deal plainly with him ; adding 
withal, that he had been more cheated and 
equivocated with by some of my malignant 
faction, than ever was man by Jesuit. At the 

TOL. IV. 11 



122 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

speaking of which words he looked as though 
blood would have gushed out of his face, and 
did shake as if he had been haunted with an 
ague fit, to my apprehension, by reason of his 
extreme malice and secret venom. I desired 
him to excuse me. He fell then to threaten me, 
and withal to bitter railing, calling me all to 
naught ; saying, ' You prating coxcomb, do you 
think all the learning is in your brain?' He 
then pronounced his sentence thus : ' I charge 
you that you neither preach, read, marry, bury, 
or exercise any ministerial function in any part 
of my diocese ; for if you do, and I hear of it, I'll 
be upon your back, and follow you wherever 
you go, in any part of the kingdom, and so 
everlastingly disenable you.' I besought him 
not to deal so in regard of a poor town. And 
here he stopped me in what I was going on to 
say. ' A poor town ! You have made a com- 
pany of seditious, factious bedlams ; and what 
do you prate to me of a poor town ? ' I prayed 
him to suffer me to catechize on the Sabbath 
days in the afternoon. He replied, ' Spare 
your breath, I'll have no such fellows prate in 
my diocese. Get you gone ; and now make 
your complaint to whom you will.' So away I 
went ; and blessed be God that J may go to 
Him." 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 123 

Nothing can exceed the shameful violence 
and brutality of the bishop, but the meekness 
and humility of the defenceless victim. " The 
Lord saw me unfit and unworthy to be con- 
tinued there any longer, — " this is his own self- 
condemning language respecting the oppressive 
treatment which he had received from a nar- 
row-minded, and unfeeling man, — " and so 
God put me to silence there, which did some- 
what humble me ; for I did think it was for my 
sins the Lord set him thus against me." 

The character of Laud, who holds a promi- 
nent place in the history of those times when 
good men were treated worse than felons for re- 
fusing to conform to human ceremonies in the 
worship of God, has been very differently drawn 
by the friends and the enemies of the Puritans. 
In the flattering portrait by Clarendon, he ap- 
pears as an angel of light, and with the beauty 
of a holy martyr ; in the rough sketch of Prynne 
whose colors were mixed up with his own blood, 
he is represented as one of the most hateful in- 
carnations of the spirit of evil. We must make 
allowance for the sweeping expressions of men 
whom the bishop had caused to be set in the 
pillory, cropped, branded with hot irons, impris- 
oned, fined and banished, for the sake of what 
they verily believed to be the cause of truth. 



124 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

But after making all necessary allowance it 
seems impossible to regard him with any feeling 
but that of detestation. When we read Shep- 
ard's description of the manner in which he si- 
lenced one of the most pious, humble, and prom- 
ising young men in the church of England at 
that time, — a description which probably would 
have answered for many similar scenes, — we 
cannot wonder that Winthrop should call him, 
"our great enemy," or that Shepard, forbidden, 
like the apostles by the Jewish rulers, to " speak 
at all, or to teach in the name of Jesus," should 
represent him as " a man fitted of God to be a 
scourge to his people." Laud was born in 1573, 
at Reading, in Berkshire, and educated at St. 
John's college, Oxford, of which he subsequent- 
ly became the President, and the munificent 
patron. He was made bishop of St. David's, in 
Wales, in 1621, — afterwards bishop of London, 
— and finally, upon the death of Abbot, in 1633, 
Archbishop of Canterbury. There was, indeed, 
as Fuller says, " neither order, office, degree, 
nor dignity in college, church, nor university, 
but he passed through it," and in every station 
he exhibited the same overweening partiality 
for the ceremonies of the church, and the same 
bitter hostility towards the Puritans who would 
not bow down to his idol. If he was not, as 



LIFE OF THOiMAS SHEPARD. 125 

Shepard calls him, " a fierce enemy of all right- 
eousness," he was certainly the avowed enemy 
of the most righteous persons in the church, and 
a cruel persecutor of every one who showed by 
his life that he preferred the power of godliness 
to a vain ceremony. He had a zeal for the ex- 
ternals of religion which consumed the spirit of 
piety ; and an ambition to increase the political 
power of the church, which did not hesitate to 
trample upon the most sacred rights of man. He 
was evidently a man of a narrow intellect and a 
bad heart. He was envious, passionate, vindic- 
tive, cruel, and implacable. In the Star-Chamber 
he ahvays advocated the severest measures, and 
*' infused more vinegar than oil into all cen- 
sures," against the victims of church authority. 
" For this individual," says an eminent writer, 
" we entertain a more unmitigated contempt 
than for any other character in our history. 
His mind had not expansion enough to compre- 
hend a great scheme, good or bad. His oppres- 
sive acts were not, like those of the Earl of 
Strafford, parts of an extensive system. They 
were the luxuries in which a mean and irritable 
disposition indulges itself from day to day, — 
the excesses natural to a little mind in a great 
place. While he abjured the innocent badges 
of popery, he retained all its worst vices, — a 
11# 



126 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

complete subjection of reason to authority, a 
weak preference of form to substance, a childish 
passion for mummeries, an idolatrous veneration 
for the priestly character, and, above all, a stupid 
and a ferocious intolerance."^ It is only neces- 
sary to add that after inflicting upon the defence- 
less Puritans all the evil in his power, he died 
a violent death, being beheaded, upon a charge 
of high treason, on the 10th of January, 1645, 
in the seventy-second year of his age. He as- 
cended the scaffold, " with a cheerful counte- 
nance, imputed by his friends to the clearedness, 
by his foes to the searedness of his conscience. 
The beholders that day were so divided between 
bemoaners and insulters, that it was hard to de- 
cide which of them made up the major part of 
the company. "t 

Having been thus unexpectedly silenced, and 
forbidden to preach or to perform any ministerial 
act within the realm of England, with no means 
of subsistence, with no employment, with no 
hope of being able to promote the cause which 
he had most at heart, with the withering sen- 
tence of the bishop upon him, Mr. Shepard 
seemed to be really in an evil case. But 
though persecuted, he was not forsaken ; though 



* Macauley's Essays, 1 ; 10, 84. 
tFullcr, Church History, Book 11, p. 215. 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD.IS? 

cast down, he was not destroyed. The Harla- 
kendens, some of whom had been the subjects of 
renewing grace under his preaching, showed 
their affection and gratitude by affording him an 
asylum in their hospitable mansion, and were 
" so many fathers and mothers" to him. The 
people of Earles-Colne, also, mindful of the good 
which had been done among them by his faith- 
ful labors, were desirous that he should remain 
in the place ; and were ready to contribute to 
his comfort, though he could be of no service to 
them as a minister of the gospel. Here he re- 
mained about six months ; and as he was shut 
out from all active employment, he improved his 
enforced leisure in looking more carefully into 
the order of worship to which he was required 
to conform, — a subject respecting which he had 
until now been undecided. The more he 
studied, the more clearly he saw " the evil of 
the English ceremonies, cross, surplice, and 
kneeling," and the less disposed to adhere to a 
church that made conformity to such things in- 
dispensable condition of its fellowship, and used 
its power so tyrannically against all who had 
conscientious scruples about them. 

Mr. Shepard's course in relation to this matter 
was not at all singular. Many of the most dis- 
tinguished Puritans of that time, and of a some- 



128 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

what later period, were for awhile undecided 
respecting their duty as to the ceremonies, — 
were willing to conform to many things which 
they could not altogether approve, — were greatly 
distressed at the idea of separating from their 
moiher church, which, with all her faults, still 
retained, substantially, the true Christian doc- 
trine. This was Philip Henry's state of mind. 
He was disposed to remain in the church, and 
to conform as far as possible ; but the treatment 
he received, convinced him that the assumption 
of human authority in matters of religion, was 
a great evil, and made him practically, though 
not nominally, an Independent. ^ In his Diary 
for Feb. 16, 1673, the following passage occurs : 
" Mr. Leigh at Chapel. Discourse at noon not 
altogether suitable to the Sabbath, concerning 
ceremonies ; but something said in public led to 
it, viz., that the magistrate hath power in im- 
posing gestures and vestures.^''] So Baxter, one 
of the most candid and conscientious of men, 
was driven farther and farther from the English 
church, by the doctrine, so cruelly reduced to 
practice, that the State has the right to fix the 
mode in which men shall worship God, and by 
the impudent plea of " men's good and the order 



* Letters on the Puritans, by J. B. Williams, 

t Life of Philip Henry, pp. 123, 183, 446, 800, 825. 



LIFE OF THOMAS S H E P A R D . ] 29 

of the church," in justification of acts of inhu- 
manity and uncharitableness.^ John Corbet, 
the author of Self-employment in Secret," who 
was turned out of his living at Bramshot, in 
Hampshire, was another whom violent and com- 
pulsory treatment compelled to study the subject 
of conformity with great care and impartiality. 
Many parts of conformity, says Baxter, he could 
have yielded to, but not all, and nothing less 
than all would satisfy the bishops, t 

While Mr. Shepard was thus engaged in ex- 
amining this subject, which had become one of 
vital importance, and forming his views of duty 
in relation to the ceremonies, his old enemy, 
Bishop Laud, coming into the country upon a 
visitation, and learning that he was still at 
Earles-Colne, cited him to appear before the 
court at Peldon ; " where I appearing, he asked 
me what I did in the place. I told him I studied. 
He asked me what ? I told him the Fathers. 
He replied I might thank him for that ; yet he 
charged me to depart the place. I asked him 
whither should I go ? To the University, said 
he. I told him I had no means to subsist there. 
Yet he charged me to depart the place." It 
was at this visitation that Mr. AVeld, who had 



* Baxter's Remains, 131, fol. 1696. 
t Sermon at the Funeral of J. Corbet. 



130 LIFE OF THOIMAS SHEPARD. 

been suspended from his ministry about a month 
before, was formally excommunicated, and thus, 
to use the bishop's expression, " everlastingly 
disenabled." Mr. Rogers, of Dedham, Avas at 
the same time required to subscribe ; and as he 
could not conscientiously do this, he was, like a 
multitude of other pious and faithful ministers, 
suspended and silenced. 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHETARD-irJl 



CHAPTER VI. 

Mr. Shepard obliged to leave Earles-Colnc. Bishop's visitation at 
Dunmore. Mr. Shepard and Rlr. Weld talk of going to Ireland. 
Scene at Dunmore. Mr. Weld arrested. Mr. Shepard flees from 
the place. Invited to act as chaplain in the family of Sir Richard 
Darley. Journey into Yorkshire. Slate of Sir Richard's family. 
First sermon at Buttercrambe. Marriage of Mr. Alured. Effect 
of his sermon upon this occasion. Marries MargareltTouteville. 
Removes to Heddon. Effect of his preaching at Heddon. Si- 
lenced by bishop Neile. First child born. Motives to emigrate to 
New England. Resolves to leave England. Engages passage in 
the Hope. Ship detained. Plan to arrest Shepard and Norton. 

It was now evident that Mr. Shepard's work at 
Earles-Colne, where he had first become ac- 
quainted with the burden and the glory of the 
cross, was finished ; and that he must prepare for 
a speedy departure if he would escape the efTects 
of the bishop's indignation. But whither should 
he go ? There was no means of subsistence for 
him at the University. He could no longer 
preach in the diocese of London ; and he had 
been threatened with persecution if he attempted 
to preach any where else in England. But he 
was under the guidance of a Providence in 
whose wisdom he could implicitly trust ; and 



132 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

during this trying scene his mind seems to have 
been kept in perfect peace with respect to the 
question where he should go, and what he 
should do. The situation of chaplain in a gen- 
tleman's family, in Yorkshire, had been offered 
to him ; but he was unwilling to leave his pres- 
ent post until actually forced away by circum- 
stances which he could not control. These 
circumstances had now occurred ; and he was 
watching for the indications of the Divine will 
in relation to his future course. 

A few days after he had been peremptorily 
commanded, by an authority which he could not 
resist, to leave Earles-Colne, the bishop was to 
hold a visitation inDunmore,in Essex; and Mr. 
Weld, Mr. Daniel Rogers, Mr. Ward, Mr. Mar- 
shall, and Mr. Wharton, all standing in jeopardy 
every hour, " consulted together whether it was 
best to let such a swine root up God's plants in 
Essex, and not give him some check." In what 
way they expected to give " a check" to such a 
man as Laud does not appear ; but it was agreed 
upon privately at Braintree, that they would 
speak to the bishop, and, if possible, to arrest 
this work of devastation. 

Mr. Shepard and Mr. Weld, traveling to- 
gether to the place where the bishop was to hold 
his visitation, discussed the expediency of emi- 



L 1 V K O !•■ 



THOMAS SHE P A KD. 133 



grating to New England. BtU, upon i\w whole, 
Ihey concliulcd that it would be belter to go by 
the way of Scotland into Ireland, and endeavor 
to find^ there a place where they might safely 
and profitably exercise their ministry. When 
they came to the church where the bishop was 
to preach, Mr. Weld, who had been already ex- 
communicated, stopped at the door, not being 
permitted to stand within consecrated walls; 
but Mr. Shepard, upon whom the anathema had 
not yet been pronounced, went boldly in. Ser- 
mon being ended, Mr. Weld drew near to hear 
the bishop's speech, supposing that as Divme 
service was over, even an excommunicated per- 
son mio-ht listen to an ordinary address. He 
was, however, mistaken. The bishop saw him, 
and turning upon him with his accustomed vio- 
lence, demanded why he was " on this side New 
Eno-land," and how he, who by excommunica- 
tion, had become a heathen and a publican 
dared to stand upon holy ground. Mr. Weld 
meekly pleaded in excuse that if he had sinned 
it was through ignorance, and begged to be for- 
given The bishop, however, was not in a for- 
giving mood, and Mr. Weld was committed to 
the pursuivant, and bound over in the sum of 
one hundred marks, to answer before the Court 
of Hi^h Commission, for the crime of desecrating 



o 
VOL. IV. 12 



134 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

a church by his presence, as " an example" and 
a warning lo all such persons in future.'^ 

AVhile ihis shameful scene was being enacted, 
Mr. Shcpard coming into the crowd, heard the 
bishop inquiring about him, and found that the 
pursuivant, having arrested Mr. Weld, was 
anxious to get hold of his companion, as the 
worst of the two. Several persons who were 
friendly to Mr. Shepard, hearing his name pro- 
nounced, and seeing that the bishop had resolved 
to make "an example " of him also, urged him 
to retire without delay ; but as he hesitated and 
lingered upon this dangerous ground, not know- 
ing what to do, a Mr. Holbeech, a pious school- 
master of Felsted, in Essex, seeing his danger, 
seized him, and drew him forcibly out of the 
church. This was no sooner done, than the 
apparitor called for Mr. Shepard, and as he was 
nowhere to be seen, the pursuivant was sent in 
haste to find and arrest him. But Mr. Hol- 
beech, who seems to have had more energy and 
presence of mind upon this occasion than his 
friend, " hastened our horses, and away we rid 
as fast as possible ; and so the Lord delivered me 
out of the hand of that lion a third time." 

Mr. Shepard was now a fugitive, not from 



• Chronicles of Masa. 522, Note. 



LIFE OF THOMAS S II E T A 11 D . 135 

justice, but from the savage officers of that 
most iniquitous Star-Chamber, in which, if no 
fault whatever could be proved, it was ruin 
to a man's person and purse to be tried. He 
had, as has been said, received an invitation to 
act as chaplain to a gentleman's family in York- 
shire, which he had declined to accept until the 
bishop had actually driven him away from 
Earles-Colne. Soon after his flight from Dun- 
more, he received a letter from Ezekiel Rogers, 
then living at Rowley, in Yorkshire, renewing 
this invitation, and urging him to come into that 
county, where he would be " far from the hear- 
ing of the malicious Bishop Laud," who had 
threatened him if he preached any where in his 
diocese. The family referred to was that of Sir 
Richard Darley, of Buttercrambe, in the north 
riding of Yorkshire. As a compensation for his 
services, the knight offered to board and lodge 
him, and the two sons of Sir Richard, Henry and 
Richard Darley, promised, for their part, a sal- 
ary of twenty pounds a year. The letters, moreo- 
ver, which he received from Yorkshire, presented 
an inducement of a higher nature, for they came 
" crying with that voice of the man of Macedo- 
nia, ' come and help us.' " Under these circum- 
stances, Mr Shepard could not be doubtful as to 
the path of duty, and he resolved to " follow the 



136 L I F K OF T H O 31 A S S 11 E P A R D . 

Lord to so remote and strange a place." When 
he was ready to depart, Sir Richard consider- 
ately sent a man to be his guide in a journey, 
which at that time, was not only tedious, but 
somewhat hazardous; and with "much grief of 
heart," he " forsook Essex and Earles-Colne, 
going, as it were, he knew not whither; and 
the affectionate people, who had for a season re- 
joiced in his light, " sorrowing most of all for 
the words which he spake, that they should see 
his face no more." 

In this journey he had occasion to remember 
the Saviour's words, " Pray that your flight be 
not in winter." They traveled on horseback, 
and were five or six days upon the road. The 
weather was cold and stormy. The rivers in 
Yorkshire were much swollen by the rains, and 
hardly passable. The ways were rough, and 
on several occasions the travelers were in great 
danger. At last they came to a town called 
Ferrybridge, on the river Aire, " where the wa- 
ters were up, and ran over the bridge for half a 
mile together." Here they hired a guide to 
conduct them over the bridge. " But when he 
had gone a little way, the violence of the water 
was such, that he first fell in, and after him 
another man, who was near drowning before my 
eyes. Whereupon my heart was so smitten 
with fear of the danger, and my head so dizzied 



LIFE OF THOMAS S H E P A R D . 137 

with the running of the water, that had not the 
Lord immediately upheld me, and my horse 
also, and so guided it, I had certainly perished." 
They had proceeded but a short distance upon 
the bridge, when Mr. Shepard fell into the 
river, but was able to keep his seat upon his 
horse, which, being a very good one, with great 
eiTort soon regained his footing upon the bridge. 
IMr. Darlej's man, also, in his efforts to save 
Mr. Shepard, fell in and was near drowning, 
but at last extricated himself from his perilous 
situation. After much difficulty they reached a 
house upon the opposite side of the river, where 
they changed their clothes, and "went to 
prayer," blessing God for " this wonderful pre- 
servation." He looked now upon his life as a 
new existence granted to him, — which he " saw 
good reason to give up unto God and his service. 
And truly, the Lord, that had dealt only gently 
with me before, now began to afflict me, and to 
let me see how good it was to be under his 
tutoring." 

It was late on Saturday evening when they 
reached York. Stopping only for some slight 
refreshment, they went on to Buttercrambe, the 
seat of Sir Richard, about seven miles farther, 
where at a late hour, very wet, cold, and weary, 
they at last arrived. The reception which Mr. 
12# 



138 L I F E OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 



Shepard met at the house of Sir Richard Dar- 
ley, was in one respect all that he could have 
anticipated ; for all his wants were promptly 
attended to, and he was lodged in the " best 
room in the house." But the religious condition 
of the family, and the manner in which he 
found some of its members employed near Sab- 
bath morning when he arrived, must have been 
more chilling to his heart than the cold rain 
had been to his frail body. To his utter aston- 
ishment and dismay, he " found divers of them 
at dice and tables," and learned with unspeaka- 
ble sorrow that although he was expected to 
preach on the morrow, no preparation had been 
made to receive him "as becometh saints." He 
was hurried to his lodgings, and on the next 
day, worn out with the fatigue of a perilous 
journey, sad at heart, and almost dead with 
despondency, he preached his first sermon in 
that place; with what effect is not known, but 
can easily be conjectured. It is not strange 
that while he was comfortably provided for in 
external respects, he should feel that he had 
fallen upon evil days, and that he was " never so 
sunk in spirit as about this time." For he was 
now far from all his friends. He was in a " pro- 
fane house," where there seemed to be no fear 
of God. He was in a " vile wicked town and 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 139 

country." He was *' unlvnown and exposed to 
all wrongs." He felt "insufficient to do any- 
work : " and, to render his situation as comfort- 
less as possible, " the lady was churlish." Yet 
even here he was not altogether forsaken and 
desolate. The lady might treat him contempt- 
uously, " but Sir Richard was ingenious ; " 
and he found in the house three friendly ser- 
vants, — Thomas Fugill, who was one of the 
principal settlers of New Haven in 163S, — Ruth 
Bushell, afterwards married to Edward Mitchen- 
son, both of whom came to New England and 
were members of the church in Cambridge, — 
and Margarett Touteville, a relative of Sir 
Richard, — by whose kind attentions the unex- 
pected trials to which he was exposed, were in 
some measure alleviated. 

Soon after Mr. Shepard became a resident in 
this family, the daughter of Sir Richard Darley 
was married to " one Mr. Alured, a most pro- 
fane young gentleman," upon which occasion, 
according to custom, a sermon was required from 
the chaplain. This was the commencement of 
what may be called a revival in that " profane 
house." Under the discourse, " the Lord first 
touched the heart of Mistress Margarett with 
very great terrors for sin and her Christless 
estate." Immediately other members of the 



140 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

family, among whom were Mr. and Mrs. Alured, 
began to inquire what they must do to be saved. 
These convictions resuUed in hopeful conver- 
sion ; and the whole family, if not savingly re- 
newed, were at least thoroughly reformed, and 
brought to the regular performance of external 
duties. This seems to have been the limit of 
Mr. Shepard's success in that place. For 
although Mather says that God quickly made 
him instrumental of a blessed change in the 
neighborhood, as well as in the family, — the 
profanest persons thereabouts being touched with 
the efficacy of his ministry, and prayer with 
fasting succeeding to their former wildness, — 
yet Mr. Shepard himself, who best knew the 
results of his preaching, declares that while 
most of the members of Sir Richard's family 
were converted, or at least greatly changed, he 
knew of " none in the town or about it who were 
brought home." 

While Mr. Shepard was thus faithfully labor- 
ing to enrich this family with the blessings of 
the gospel, the Lord was preparing for him one 
of the greatest of earthly blessings, — a pious and 
devoted wife. For three years, while he resid- 
ed at Earles-Colne, he had made it a subject of 
earnest prayer that the Lord would carry him to 
a place " where he might find a meet yoke-fel- 



LIFE 



OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 141 



low." His prayer was now answered. He 
found in Margarett Touteville,— then about 
twenty-seven years of age,— a woman every 
way suited to aid him in his arduous work. 
She was " a most humble woman,"— a " very 
discerning Christian,"—" amiable and holy,"— 
" endued with a very sweet spirit of prayer,"— 
and upon the whole, "the best and the fittest 
person in the world " for such a man as Shepard. 
Sir Richard, wath his whole family favored the 
connection, not only giving their cordial con- 
sent to his union with their kins-woman, but 
generously increasing her marriage portion ; and 
in 1632, after a residence of about a year in the 
family, he was happily married to one, who, in 
his " exiled condition in a strange place," and in 
his hardships and dangers, was ever to him an 
"incomparably loving " and faithful wife. 

Mr. Shepard now found it expedient to re- 
move from Buttercrambe. His wife was unwil- 
ling to remain in Sir Richard's family after her 
marriage ; and besides, it soon became impossi- 
ble for him to continue his labors in that place, 
for bishop Neile, a rigid ceremonialist, coming 
to York and hearing of him, peremptorily for- 
bade his preaching there any longer unless he 
would subscribe, which, with his conscience now 
becoming fully enlightened, he could not do. 



142 L I F E OF THOMAS S H E P A R D . 

At this crisis he received an invitation to preach 
at Heddon, a town in Northumberland, about 
five miles from Newcastle upon the Tyne. It 
was a poor place, and afforded but little prospect 
of a comfortable subsistence. But it was the 
only field of labor open to him at that time ; and 
as the people were anxious to obtain his services, 
— especially as there he would be far from the 
residence of any bishop, a matter of the greatest 
importance to a preacher who could not sub- 
scribe, — he resolved to go. Accordingly, ac- 
companied by Mr. Alured, he went to Heddon, 
not without painful apprehensions of danger 
from the efforts of his enemies, and his " poor 
wife full of fears." But all his fears were not 
realized. He experienced, as he expected, some 
hardship and inconvenience ; but he found some 
kind Christian friends, among the most valuable 
of whom were Mrs. Fenwick, who gave him the 
use of a house, and Mrs. Sherbourne, who con- 
tributed largely to his maintenance. His labors 
in Heddon, and in the adjoining tow^ns, were 
abundant, and accompanied by the Divine bless- 
ing. ]\Iany of his hearers were converted ; and 
those who already loved the truth, were greatly 
strengthened by his vigorous piety, and enlight- 
ening ministry. He found time also to study 
more thoroughly the subject of church govern- 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 143 



ment and order, and lo form his opinions more 
fully in relation to the ceremonies, and the " un- 
lawful standing of bishops." He thus became 
more and more sensible of the great errors of 
the Established Church, and better fitted for the 
work of building up the tabernacle of God in 
the wilderness, to which he was soon to be 
called. 

After preaching at Heddon for about a year, 
he removed, for what reason is not known, to a 
neighboring town. But he was soon forced to 
leave that place by a clergyman who came with 
authority to forbid his preaching publicly any 
longer. In this new and unexpected trouble, 
application was made by his friends to Morton, 
Bishop of Durham, for liberty to continue his 
ministry among them; but the bishop, although 
he seems to have been disposed to grant this re- 
quest, acknowledged that he dared not give his 
sanction to the preaching of a man whom Laud 
had undertaken to silence. Mr. Shepard there- 
fore went from place to place, and preached 
wherever he could do so without danger, until 
at last he was obliged to confine himself to pri- 
vate exposition in the house of Mr. Fenwick. 
During this dismal and trying season, his first 
child, whom he named Thomas, was born,— the 
mother having been in great peril for four days 



144 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 



through the unskillfulness of her physician. 
To have been deprived of such a wife in that 
" dark country," and when he was strug^gling- 
with innumerable difficulties and dangers, would 
have broken his spirit, and the Lord mercifully 
spared him this aflliction. But the shadow of 
such an evil falling upon him amidst all his oth- 
er trials, humbled him in the dust, — reminded 
him of all his delinquencies, and broken resolu- 
tions, — drew him nearer to God, and excited 
him to greater diligence and faithfulness in his 
great work. 

Mr. Shepard had now been " tossed from 
the south to the north of England," and could 
neither go farther in that direction, nor preach 
the gospel publicly where he was. He there- 
fore began to consider the case of conscience 
frequently put by the martyrs in the bloody 
days of Queen Mary ; whether it was not his 
duty to abandon, his country altogether, and 
seek in a new world not only a refuge for 
himself, but a place where he might labor se- 
curely, and with hope, for the advancement of 
the Saviour's kingdom. The thoughts of many 
pious persons in England had for some time 
been turned towards this country, where, it was 
believed, the Lord was about to plant the gospel, 
and to establish a pure church. Cotton, Hooker, 



LIFE OF THOMAS SIIEPARD. 145 

Stone, and Weld, the intimate friends of Mr. 
Shepard, together with many of their people, 
had already fled to New England; and many 
others were preparing to follow them into the 
wilderness where they could worship God ac- 
cording to his word. Under these circumstan- 
ces, Mr. Shepard "began to listen to a call to 
New England." 

For taking this decisive step he saw many 
weighty reasons. He had no call to any place 
in England where he could preach the gospel, 
nor any means of subsistence for himself and 
family. He saw many pious people leaving 
their country, and going forth, like Abraham, 
they knew not whither, at the call of God and 
conscience. He was urged by those who had 
already gone, and by many who wished to goto 
New England, to abandon a country where he 
could no longer be useful as a minister of 
Christ, and aid them in their holy enterprise by 
his wisdom and piety. He " saw the Lord de- 
parting from England when Mr. Hooker and 
Mr. Cotton were gone," and anticipated nothing 
but misery if he were left behind. He was con- 
vinced of the evil of the ceremonies, and of the 
inexpediency if not the sin of mixed communion 
in the sacraments of the church as then adminis- 
tered, while at the same time he deemed it 

VOL. IV. 13 



146 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

" lawful to join with them in preaching." He 
felt it to be his duty to enjoy, if possible, the 
benefit of all God's ordinances, and to seek them 
in a foreign land, if they could not be found at 
home. He was exposed to fine, imprisonment, 
and all manner of persecution, and he saw no 
Divine command to remain and suffer, when the 
Lord had providentially opened a way of escape. 
He regarded, however, not so much his own 
personal quiet and safety, as " the glory of those 
liberties in New England," which the people of 
God seemed about to enjoy, and the influence 
which he might exert in securing and defending 
them. It was urged by some who did not wish 
to emigrate, that he might remain in the north 
of England and preach privately ; but he was 
convinced that this would expose him to danger, 
and he was not satisfied that it was his duty to 
hazard his personal liberty and the comfort and 
safety of his family, for what was by all classes 
deemed a disorderly manner of preaching, when 
he might exercise his talent publicly and honor- 
ably in New England. Finally, he considered 
how sad a thing it would be, if he should die, to 
leave his wife and child in " that rude place of 
the north, where there w^as nothing but barba- 
rous wickedness," and " how sweet it would be 



LIFE OF T H I^I A S S II E P A R D . 1 17 

to leave them among God's people," however 
poor. 

These considerations appeared to him of suf- 
ficient weight to justify his speedy departure, 
" before the pursuivants came out " to render his 
escape impracticable. And afterwards, when 
the removal of the New England Puritans was 
spoken of by some of their brethren at liome as 
a treacherous and cowardly flight from the duty 
of suffering, the same reasons substantially were 
assigned by him in his answer to Ball, as a 
complete vindication of their conduct. " Was 
it not," he says, " a time when human worship 
and inventions were grown to such an intolera- 
ble height, that the consciences of God's people, 
enlightened in the truth, could no longer bear 
them ? Was not the power of the tyrannical 
prelates so great that like a strong current it 
carried every thing down stream before it ? Did 
not the hearts of men generally fail them ? 
Where was the people to be found that would 
cleave to their godly ministers in their suffer- 
ings, but rather thought it their discretion to 
provide for their own quiet and safety ? What 
would men have us do in such a case ? Must 
we study some distinctions to salve our con- 
sciences in complying with so manifold corrup- 
tions in God's worship, or should we live with- 



14S LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

out God's ordinances because we could not 
partake in the corrupt administration of them ? 
It is true we might have suffered ; we might 
easily have found the way to have filled the 
prisons ; and some had their share in these suf- 
ferings. But whether we were called to this, 
when a wide door of liberty was set open, and 
our witnesses to the truth, through the malig- 
nant policy of those times, could not testify 
openly before the world, but were smothered up 
in close prisons, we leave to be considered. We 
cannot see but the rule of Christ to his apostles, 
and the practice of God's saints in all ages, may 
allow us this liberty as well as others, to fly into 
the wilderness from the face of the dragon. The 
infinite and only wise God hath many works to 
do in the world ; and by his singular providence, 
he gives gifts to his servants, and disposes them 
to his work as seems unto him best. If the 
Lord will have some to bear witness by impris- 
onment, mutilation, &c., he gives them spirits 
suitable to this work, and we honor them in it. 
If he will have others instrumental to promote 
reformation in England, we honor them, and re- 
joice in their holy endeavor, and pray for a 
blessing upon them and their labors. And what 
if God will have his church built up also in 
these remote parts of the world, that his name 



LIFE OF THOMAS SIIETARD. 149 

may be known to the heathen, or whatsoever 
other end he has, and for this purpose will send 
forth a company of weak-hearted Christians, 
who dare not stay at home to suffer, why should 
we not let the Lord alone, and rejoice that Christ 
is preached howsoever and wheresoever."* 

Having fully resolved to leave England at the 
first favorable opportunity, Mr. Shepard took 
leave of his friends in the north, where he had 
labored for about a year ; and in the beginning 
of June, 1634, accompanied by his wife, child, 
and maid-servant, he left Newcastle, secretly 
for fear of the pursuivants, on board a coal ves- 
sel bound to Ipswich, the principal town in Suf- 
folk. He remained a short time in Ipswich, 
first in the family of Mr. Russell, and then with 
his friend Mr. Collins, both of whom were after- 
wards prominent members of the church in 
Cambridge. From Ipswich he made a journey 
to Earles-Colne, where he lived very privately 
in the family of Mr. Harlakenden, from whom 
he received every attention which his forlorn 
situation required. Here he passed the Sum- 
mer of 1634. This period, in which he was 
" so tossed up and down," having no permanent 
place of residence, and being obliged to keep 



* Treatise of Liturgies, Pref. pp. 4, 5, 6, 

13^ 



1 50 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

himself concealed from the notice of ^e bishops, 
he found " the most uncomfortable and fruitless, 
to his own soul especially," that he ever experi- 
enced. He therefore longed to be in New Eng- 
land as soon as possible : and as a number of 
friends, among whom was John Norton, were 
preparing to emigrate at the close of that sum- 
mer, he determined to accompany them. The 
ship in which they expected to sail, was the 
Hope, of Ipswich, and the time fixed for their 
departure, was the early part of September. 
Althoufrh the season was so far advanced that 

O 

they must arrive on the bleak coast of New Eng- 
land towards the beginning of winter, yet as 
dangers thickened around them, — as the master, 
Mr. Gurling, was an able seaman and very 
friendly to the emigrants, — as the ship was a 
large and good one, — and as they were assured 
by the captain that he would certainly sail at the 
time appointed, — they were willing to encoun- 
ter the perils of the voyage at that season. 

All necessary arrangements having been 
made, Mr. Shepard repaired with his family to 
Ipswich for the purpose of embarking. The 
ship, however, was not ready to sail, and they 
were detained six or eight weeks beyond the 
time agreed upon. The company were now in 
great perplexity and distress. The winter was 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 151 

rapidly approaching, and the voyage becoming 
every day more dangerous. They were sur- 
rounded by enemies, and constantly liable to be 
discovered and arrested by the savage pursui- 
vants. Some of them feared that this detention 
might be a divine chastisement sent upon them 
for " rushing onward too soon." Mr. Shepard 
was for awhile in great heaviness of soul, and 
had many fears and doubts in relation to this 
enterprise. He had gone too far to relinquish 
the voyage, and the only alternative was to pro- 
ceed; but from that time he resolved "never to 
go about a sad business in the dark, unless 
God's call within as we-ll as without" was 
" very strong, and clear, and comfortable." 

While the company were thus anxiously and 
impatiently waiting for the ship to sail, Mr. 
Shepard and Mr. Norton were kindly concealed 
and provided for in the house of a worthy man, 
who exerted himself nobly, and at some hazard 
to himself, in their behalf. Many of the pious 
people in the town resorted privately to these men 
of God for instruction. At the same time their 
enemies were eagerly watching for them, and 
using all possible means to entrap and appre- 
hend them. These hunters of souls, failing in 
all their efforts to draw their prey into the open 
field, and being restrained by law from breaking 



152 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

into the asylum to which they had fled, at last 
persuaded a young man, who lived in the house 
where Mr. Shepard lodged, by a large sum of 
money, to promise that at a certain hour of a 
night agreed upon, he would open the door for 
their peaceable entrance into this sanctuary. The 
youth, who was frequently in the presence of 
Mr. Shepard, and heard the words of grace and 
the fervent prayers which he uttered, became 
deeply impressed with the thought that this was 
a holy man of God ; and that to betray him into 
the hands of his enemies would be a heinous 
crime. He began to repent of his bargain. As 
the night in which he was to execute his wicked 
purpose drew near, he became greatly agitated 
with sorrow, fear, and regret, insomuch that his 
master noticed the remarkable change in his ap- 
pearance and conduct, and questioned him as to 
the cause of his apparent distress. At first he 
was unwilling to reveal the truth, and for some 
time evaded the inquiries of the family ; but at 
length, by the urgent expostulations of his mas- 
ter, he was brought to confess with tears, that 
on such a night, he had promised to let in men 
to apprehend the godly minister. Mr. Shepard 
was immediately conveyed away to a place of 
safety, by his friends ; and when the men came 
at the time appointed, the bird had escaped from 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 153 

the snare of the fowler. Not finding the door 
unbolted as they expected when they raised the 
latch, they thrust their staves under it to lift it 
from its hinges; but being observed by some 
persons whom the good man of the house had 
prudently employed for that purpose, they pre- 
cipitately fled lest they should be arrested and 
dealt with as house-breakers.^ 



* Johnson's Wonder-working Providence, ch. 29. 



154 LIF?: OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Mr. Shepard sails from Harwich. Danger of shipwreck upon ihe 
sands. Man overboard. Windy Saturday. Providential deliver- 
ance. Goes on shore at Yarmouth. Child taken sick and dies. 
Feelings of Mr. Shepard. Thinks of abandoning the voyage. 
Embarrassments. I\Irs. Corbet furnishes an asylum at Bastwick. 
Employment. Writes " Select Cases." Goes to London. Second 
child born. Escape from the pursuivants. Spends the summer in 
London. Embarks for New England in the Defence. Ship springs 
a leak. I\Ir». Shepard providentially saved from death. Arrival at 
Boston. 

On the 16th of October, 1634, Mr. Shepard 
and his friends sailed from Harwich, a seaport 
in Essex, at the mouth of the river Stour. 
They had proceeded but a few leagues, when 
the wind suddenly changing they were obliged 
to cast anchor in a very dangerous place. The 
wind continued to blow all night ; and, on the 
morning of the 17th, became so violent that the 
ship dragged her anchors, and was driven upon 
the sands near the harbor of Harwich, where she 
was for some time in the most imminent peril. 
To add to their distress, one of the sailors, in 
endeavoring to execute some order, fell over- 
board, and was carried a mile or more out to 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 155 

sea, apparently beyond the reach of any human 
aid. The ship and crew were at that moment 
in so much danger, that no one could be spared 
to go in search of him, if, indeed, the boat could 
have lived a moment in the sea that was break- 
ing around them ; and when the immediate 
danger to the ship was over, no one on board 
supposed that the poor man was alive. He was, 
however, discovered floating upon the waves at 
a great distance, though it was known that he 
was not able to swim ; and three seamen put ofT 
in the boat, at the hazard of their lives, to save 
him. When they reached him, though he was 
floating, supported as it were by a Divine hand, 
he exhibited no signs of life, and having taken 
him on board, they laid him in the bottom of the 
boat, supposing him to be dead. One of the 
men, however, was unwilling to give up his 
ship-mate without using all the means in their 
power for his resuscitation. Upon turning his 
head downward, in order to let the water run 
out, he began to breathe ; in a few moments, 
under such treatment as their good sense sug- 
gested, he was able to move and to speak; and 
by the time they reached the ship, he had re- 
covered the use of his limbs, having been in the 
water more than an hour. This incident is in- 
teresting mainly on account of the prophetic use 



156 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEFARD. 

that was made of it by one of the passengers, 
probably eiiher Mr. Shepard or Mr. Norton, in 
his efforts to encourage the desponding com- 
pany. " This man's danger and deliverance," 
said he, " is a type of ours. We are in great 
danger, and yet the Lord's power will be shown 
in saving us." 

The event corresponded to the prediction, and 
the strong faith of the man of God, like that of 
Paul, in his stormy voyage to Rome, was re- 
warded by the deliverance which it confidently 
expected. The ship that was driving rapidly 
towards the shore, and actually touching the 
sands with her keel, was, by some means, 
turned about, and beaten back towards Yar- 
mouth roads, " an open place at sea, fit for 
anchorage, but otherwise a very dangerous 
place." Here they came to anchor, and hoped 
to ride out the gale. But on Saturday morning, 
October 18, the storm increased in violence, and 
the wind from the west blew with such destruc- 
tive fury, that the day was long known among 
the inhabitants of the coast as the Windy Satur- 
day. Many vessels were cast away in this 
storm ; and among them the collier which 
brought Mr. Shepard from Newcastle, the cap- 
tain and all his men being lost. When the wind 
arose the anchors were thrown out, but the ca- 



LIFE OF TTTOMAS SIIEPARD. 157 

bles parted immediately, and the ship drifted 
rapidly towards the sands where her destruction 
seemed inevitable. The master gave up all for 
lost, and the passengers resorted to prayer. 
Guns were fired for assistance from the town ; 
but, although thousands were spectators of their 
danger, and large rewards were offered to any 
who would venture their lives to save the pas- 
sengers and crew, yet so dreadful was the storm 
that no one could be prevailed upon to volunteer 
in this service. It was known among the crowd 
that gazed from the walls of Yarmouth upon this 
terrible scene, that the ship was full of Puritan 
emigrants, and therefore a peculiar interest was 
felt in the catastrophe which seemed to await 
her, — some fervently praying that the Lord 
would deliver his people from the danger that 
threatened them ; — and others, probably, im- 
piously rejoicing in their anticipated destruc- 
tion. One man, an officer of some kind, ven- 
tured to give expression to the feelings which 
were cherished by many. With a spirit of 
prophecy, somewhat like that of Balaam, when 
he was constrained to bless with his mouth the 
people whom he cursed in his heart, he scof- 
fingly exclaimed, that he " pitied the poor collier 
in the road," — referring to the coal vessel in 
which Mr. Shepard had sailed from Newcastle, — 

VOL. IV. 14 



158 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEl'ARD. 

" but for the Puritans in the other ship, he felt no 
concern, for their faith would save them." 

And their faith, — or rather the Lord in whom 
they trusted, and for whose glory they had en- 
countered perils by sea as well as by land, — did 
save them, in a remarkable way and by unex- 
pected means. The captain and the sailors had 
lost all presence of mind ; and believing that the 
storm was preternatural, and that the ship was 
bewitched, they made use of the only means of 
escape they could think of, which was nailing 
two red hot horse-shoes to the mainmast as a 
charm. ^ But there was on board a drunken 
fellow, " no sailor, though he had often been 
to sea," who had taken it into his head to 
accompany these pious people to New Eng- 
land, to whose cool judgment they now, under 
God, owed their deliverance. Instead of nailing 
horse-shoes to the mast, he advised that it 
should be cut away, as the only possible method 
of saving the ship. The captain and the crew, 
bewildered by terror, were incapable of listen- 
ing to advice ; and at last Cock, — for that was 
the man's name, — assuming the responsibility, 
called for hatchets, and encouraging the com- 
pany and the seamen who were " forlorn and 



♦ Johnson. Hist. N. E115. ch. 29. 



LIFE OF THOMAS S II K P A R I) . 159 



hopeless of life," they cut the masts hy the board, 
just at the moment when all had given them- 
selves up for lost, expecting "to see neither New 
nor old England, nor faces of friends any more." 
When the mast was down, a small anchor 
which remained, was thrown oat ; but it being 
very light, the ship dragged, and continued to 
drift rapidly towards the shore. The sailors, 
suppos^ing that the anchor was gone, or that it 
would not hold, pointed to the devouring sands 
where so many vessels had been engulfed, and 
bid the passengers behold the place where their 
graves should shortly be. The captain declared 
that he had done all that he could, and desired 
the ministers to pray for help from above. Ac- 
cordingly Mr. Norton, with the passengers, two 
hundred in number, in one place, and Mr. Shep- 
ard, with the mariners upon deck, " went to 
prayer," and committed their " souls and bodies 
unto the Lord that gave them." Immediately 
after prayer the violence of the wind began to 
abate, and the ship ceased to drift. The last 
anchor was not lost, as they thought, but was 
dragged along, ploughing the sand by the vio- 
lence of the wind, which abating after prayer, 
though still violent, " the ship was stopped just 
when it was ready to be swallowed up of the 
sands." They were still, however, in great 



160 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

danger; for the wind was high, and though the 
anchor had brought the ship up, yet the " cable 
was let out so far that a little rope held the ca- 
ble, and the cable the little anchor, and the little 
anchor the great ship in this great storm." 
When one of the company, whose faith was 
stronger than cable or tempest, saw how 
strangely they were preserved, exclaimed, 
•' That thread we hang by" — for so he called 
the rope attached to the cable, — " will save us." 
And so, indeed, it did, " the Lord showing his 
dreadful power, and yet his unspeakable rich 
mercy towards us, who heard, nay helped us, 
when we could not cry through the disconsolate 
fears we had, out of these depths of seas and 
miseries." This deliverance was so great, and 
so manifestly wrought in answer to prayer, that 
Mr. Shepard thought, if he ever reached the 
shore again, he should live like one risen 
from the dead, and he desired that this 
mercy, to him and his family, might be remem- 
bered to the glory of God, by his " children 
and their children's children," when he was 
dead, and could not " praise the Lord in the 
land of the living any more." 

They remained on board during the night in 
comparative safety, — the storm continuing to 
abate, — but in a very comfortless condition. 



LIFE OF T II BI A S S II E P A R D . 161 

Many were sick, "many weak and discouraged," 
and there were " many sad hearts." On Sab- 
bath morning, October 19th, they went on shore. 
The Puritans were very strict in their observ- 
ance of the Sabbath ; and Mr. Shepard thought 
that they were in too much haste to leave the 
ship, and that they ought to have spent the day 
on board in praising the Lord for his signal in- 
terposition in their behalf. But there were 
many feeble persons among them who were 
unable to engage in religious exercises, and had 
need of refreshment on shore ; and besides, they 
were " afraid of neglecting a season of provi- 
dence in going out while they had a calm;" for 
they were held as it were by " a thread," and 
if the wind should rise again, they might all find 
their graves in the sands. Mr. Shepard and his 
family left the ship in the first boat that was sent 
from the town to take off the passengers. And 
here they were visited by a new and more bitter 
affliction. They were saved from the devouring 
waters to be smitten by the sudden and myste- 
rious death of their only child, now about a year 
old. In the passage from the ship to the shore, 
he was seized with vomiting, which no means 
they could use, — although they had all neces- 
sary medical aid at Yarmouth, could check. 
After lingering for a fortnight in great distress 
14# 



162 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

he died, and was buried at Yarmouth. The 
funeral was conducted very privately ; and it 
was no small aggravation of the sorrow which 
they felt for the loss of their first-born, that Mr. 
Shepard dared not be present, lest the pursui- 
vants should discover and apprehend him. For, 
as soon as they were ashore, says Scottou, " two 
vipers designed not only to leap upon the hands" 
of Shepard and Norton, " but to seize their per- 
sons. But how strangely preserved, is not un- 
known to some of us.^^ ^ 

It is interesting to learn what were the feel- 
ings and exercises of such a man as Mr. Shep- 
ard under afflictions like these ; for the inward 
experiences of such minds furnish great lessons 
for us. There was no murmuring under the 
rod. The feeling of his heart was that of a lov- 
ing child kindly chastised by a tender father ; 
and he saw in every blow a manifestation of 
divine love, and 'a corrective of his wayward- 
ness. As if the Lord " saw that these waters 
were not sufficient to wash away my sinfulness, 
he cast me into the fire. He showed me my 
weak faith, pride, carnal content, immoderate 
love of creatures, of my child especially, and 
begat in me some desires and purposes to fear 



* Chronicles of Mass. 540, Note. 



LIFE OF THOMAS SIIEPARD. 163 



his name. I considered how unfit I was to go 
to such a good land (as New England) with 
such an unmortified, hard, dark, formal hypo- 
critical heart ; and therefore no wonder if the 
Lord did thus cross me." He even began to 
fear, — such was his tenderness of conscience, 
and desire to walk in all the commandments 
and ordinances of the Lord blameless, — that his 
allliction came, in part, for " running too far in 
a way of separation from the mixed assemblies 
in England," though this, of all his sins, must 
have been the smallest, for he did not forsake 
the church until he was driven from it by arbi- 
trary force ; and he always believed and de- 
clared, — what none of the Puritans ever denied, 
— that there were " true churches in may par- 
ishes in England," arid also true ministers of 
the gospel, whose preaching he never refused to 
hear when he had opportunity. 

One effect of these afflictions, — the sudden 
death of his only child, and the tremendous 
storm which seemed like a frown of providence 
upon their voyage, — was to diminish very much 
his desire of emigrating to New England, and 
to make him almost willing to remain and suffer 
at home. This state of mind, however, did not 
continue long. When he remembered that he 
had been tossed from one end of England to the 



164 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 



Other, — that there was no place in his native 
land where he could preach the gospel, — that so 
long as he refused conformity to the errors and 
corruptions of the church, nothing but " bonds 
and afflictions" awaited him, — that a "door of 
escape " was providentially opened, — and that 
in this distant land he should not only be beyond 
the reach of the bishops, but find a place where 
he might labor for the cause of Christ, — his de- 
sire to emigrate revived, and he resolved that as 
soon as practicable, he would make another at- 
tempt to place the ocean between him and his 
persecutors. 

In the mean time he was in great distress, 
not knowing where to go nor what to do. The 
Philistines were upon him. There seemed to 
be no place of safety. He could neither labor 
for a subsistence, nor could his friends, without 
great danger, minister effectually to his neces- 
sities. In this time of need, — the most trying 
and apparently hopeless he had ever experi- 
enced, — Roger Harlakenden, and his brother 
Samuel, having heard of his escape from the 
dangers of the sea, and of worse dangers to 
which he was still exposed upon land, visited 
him, and refreshed his spirit by their sympathy 
and assistance. While casting about where 
to spend the winter that was approaching, Mr. 



LIFE OF Til OBI AS SHEPAKD. 165 

Bridgfe, minister of Norwich, kindly offered 
him an asylum in his family. But a Mrs. 
Corbet, an aged, and eminently pious wo- 
man, who lived about five miles from Nor- 
wich, fearing that Mr. Bridge might hazard his 
liberty by harboring the fugitive, invited him to 
occupy a house of hers, then vacant, at Bastwick, 
a small hamlet in the county of Norfolk. And 
she not only furnished him with a house which 
" was fit to entertain any prince for fairness, 
greatness, and pleasantness," but in various 
ways endeavored to render the season of his 
detention and confinement as comfortable as pos- 
sible. Here with his wife and a few friends, — 
Mr. Harlakenden defraying the whole expense of 
house-keeping, — he passed the winter of 1634-5, 
far from the notice of his enemies, and solaced 
by " sweet fellowship one with another, and also 
with God." Nor was he idle in this comfortable 
retreat. For although he could not preach pub- 
licly, he could employ his pen for the instruc- 
tion and consolation of his afflicted friends, and 
by diligent study prepare himself for that ser- 
vice to which he was soon to be called in the 
new world. It was durinsf this season that he 
wrote the little work, first published at London 
in 1648, entitled " Select Cases Resolved," in 
a letter to a pious friend, who had fallen into 



166 LIFE OF THOMAS SIIEPARD. 

doubt and difficulty respecting the questions 
therein discussed. In the Title pages of the 
first two editions, this letter is said to have been 
sent from New England ; but from several ex- 
pressions at the commencement and at the close, 
it is evident that it was written in England, and 
upon the eve of his departure from that country; 
for he says " It may possibly be my dying letter 
to you before I depart from hence and return to 
Him, as not knowing but our last disasters and 
sea-straits, of which I wrote to you, may be but 
the preparation for the execution of the next ap- 
proaching voyage." And again in the conclu- 
sion, " I thank you heartily for improving me 
this v/ay of writing, who have my mouth stopped 
from speakiiig,'''' — a calamity which certainly 
never befell him in New England, — " and re- 
member when you are best able to pray for 
yourself, to look after me and mine, and all that 
go with me on the mighty waters ; and then to 
look up and sigh to heaven for me, that the 
'Lord would out of his free grace but bring me 
to that good land, and those glorious ordinances, 
and that there I may but behold the face of the 
Lord in his temple," — a request which he never 
had occasion to make after landing on these 
shores. Of this letter, written in a time of 
great trial, and coming from a mind itself need- 



LIFE OF THOMAS SREPARD. 167 

ing all the consolations of friendship and relig- 
ion, it is only necessary to say in the language 
of those who first gave it to the public, that 
it is "so full of grace and truth, that it needs 
no other epistle commendatory than itself," and 
no one who desires to walk comfortably with 
God in his general and particular calling, can 
study these answers, in which acuteness, depth, 
piety, and Christian experience are so eminently 
and happily blended, without becoming a wiser 
and a holier man.^ 

Early in the spring of 1635, Mr. Shepard, 
accompanied by his friend Harlakenden, went 
up to London, in order to make all necessary 
preparation for another attempt to leave Eng- 
land. During the journey, which seems to have 
been somewhat protracted, he was nearly de- 
prived of his faithful and devoted wife. At the 
house of Mr. Burroughs, a puritan minister, 
where they stopped about a fortnight, Mrs. 
Shepard, being near her confinement, " fell down 
from the top of a pair of stairs to the bottom ; 
yet the Lord kept her, and the child also, from 
that deadly danger." Upon their arrival at 
London in the very neighborhood of their "great 
enemy " Laud, and not knowing where to hide 



* Prefaces to Select Cases Resolved, by Adderly, Geree, and Green- 
hill. 



168 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 



themselves, a Mrs. Sherbourne provided a " very 
private place " for them ; where, on Sunday, 
April 5, 1-625, their second son was born, whom 
they named Thomas, after his brother who died 
at Yarmouth. The mother soon recovered, but 
the child was sickly, and at one time they 
thought he would have died of a sore mouth. 
Mr. Shepard had more confidence in prayer than 
in the physician's skill ; and in the night he was 
" stirred up to pray " for the life of the child, 
and " that with very much fervor, and many 
arguments;" and thus after a sad, heavy night 
the Lord shined upon him in the morning, and 
he found the sore mouth, which was thought to be 
incurable, " suddenly and strangely amended." 
They had not been long in London before their 
hiding-place was discovered by their enemies, 
and in order to escape from the " vipers " that 
were ready to fasten upon them, they re- 
moved by night to a house belonging to Mr. 
Alured, which providentially stood empty. The 
pursuivants, who were sent to apprehend Mr. 
Shepard, were a little too late; for upon enter- 
ing the place where he had been secreted, they 
found that the whole family had gone no one 
knew wither ; and thus once more the Lord de- 
livered his faithful servant from the snares which 
had been laid for him. 



LIFE OF THOMAS SIIEPARD. 169 

In the closest retirement, but not without much 
sympathy and many tokens of love from Christ- 
ian friends, Mr. Shcpard and his family passed 
the summer of 163-5 in London. Towards the 
close of the summer, — Mrs. Shepard and the 
child having- recovered their strength in some 
measure, — they began to prepare again for their 
removal to New England. The reasons which 
had led them to this decision the year before, 
still existed with perhaps increasing force ; and 
it became more and more evident every day 
that there was no longer any place or duty for 
them in England. Several " precious friends " 
were resolved, and waiting to sail with Mr. 
Shepard, among whom were Roger Harlaken- 
den, Mr. Champney, Mr. Wilson, Mr. Jones, 
afterwards colleague with Mr. Bulkley at Con- 
cord, besides many pious people who were 
ready to follow their persecuted ministers to the 
ends of the earth, in order to enjoy the gospel 
in its purity. All necessary arrangements hav- 
ing been made, on the 10th of August, 1635, — 
a day to be remembered by the people of this 
commonwealth, — the company embarked on 
board the ship Defence, of London, commanded 
by Capt. Thomas Bostock, and commenced their 
voyage ; " having tasted much of God's mercy 

VOL. 17. 15 



1 70 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

in England, and lamenting the loss of our na- 
tive country, when we took our last view of it." 
/ Mr. Shepard, it has been said, embarked in dis- 
' guise, and under the assumed name of his brother, 
" John Shepard, husbandman." The authority 
for this statement is found in a list of passengers 
who came over in the Defence, taken from a 
manuscript volume, discovered in the Augmen- 
tation Office, so called, by Mr. Savage, in the 
year 1S42, which contains the names of persons 
permitted to embark at the port of London, be- 
tween Christmas 1634, and the same period in 
the following year. In this list we have, among 
others, the names of John Shepard, husband- 
man, aged thirty six, — Margarett Shepard, thirty 
one, and Thomas Shepard, three months. Sam- 
uel Shepard appears as a servant of Roger Har- 
lakenden. Neither Mr. Wilson nor Mr. Jones 
are mentioned, though they were certainly on 
board; but Sarah Jones, aged thirty- four, with 
her children, is named among the passengers."^ 
It is probable that Mr. Shepard did embark un- 
der the name of his brother John, though as he 
was born in 1605, he could have been but thirty 
years of age when he came to this country, and 
Margarett seems to have been somewhat young- 
er. We know that great efforts were at that 



*IVIas8. Hist. Coll. xxviil. 268, 269, 273. 



LIFE OF THOMAS S II E P A R D . 17 1 

time made to prevent the ministers from leaving 
England. As early as 1629, Mr. Higginson, 
writing from Salem, exhorted his friends to come 
quickly, for if they lingered too long " the pas- 
sages of Jordan, through the malice of Satan, 
might be stopped." Cotton, Hooker, and Stone, 
who came in 1633, with great difficulty eluded 
the vigilance of the pursuivants, and escaped 
from the country. Richard Mather was obliged 
to conceal himself until the vessel was at sea. 
In April, 1637, a proclamation was issued " to 
restrain the disorderly transportation of his maj- 
esty's subjects to the colonies without leave," 
commanding that " no license should be given 
them, without a certificate that they had taken 
the oaths of supremacy and allegiance, and had 
conformed to the discipline of the Church of Eng- 
land."^ The danger, therefore, to which Mr. 
Shepard, in common with others, was exposed, 
was great enough to render concealment desira- 
ble and necessary. How far any one is justifia- 
ble in assuming the name of another for the 
purpose of avoiding danger, or of doing a good 
work, is a question of casuistry which every 
reader will decide according to his light: but all 
candid persons who become familiar with they 



* See Chroniclea of Massachusells, pp. 260, 428, noUs. 



172 L I F E OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

character of Shepard, and with the circum- 
stances in which he was placed, must be con- 
vinced that he intended to act conscientiously ; 
and that if he did not, as he confessed, belong 
to that class of Martyrs to whom God gave " a 
spirit of courage and willingness to glorify him 
by sufferings at home," he was at least a sin- 
cere lover of truth, and foremost among those 
holy men who were prepared to " go to a wil- 
derness, where they could forecast nothing but 
care and temptation," for the sake of enjoying 
Christ in his ordinances, and of propagating the 
gospel in its divine purity. If any think that 
he erred in not boldly facing the terrors of the 
Star-Chamber, " let him that is without sin 
among them cast the first stone at him." 

The ship in which they embarked was old, 
rotten, and altogether unfit for such a voyage. 
In the first storm they encountered, she sprung 
a leak which exposed them to imminent peril ; 
and they were on the point of returning to port, 
when, with much difficulty, they succeeded in 
repairing the damage. They had a stormy and 
rough passage. The infant Thomas, who, at 
their embarkation was so feeble that the parents 
and friends feared he could not live until they 
reached New England, was much benefited by 



LIFE OF THOMAS S 11 E P A R D . 173 

the sea ; but the mother, worn out by constant 
watching-, hardship, and exposure, at last took a 
cold, — terminating in consumption, — which in a 
few months consigned her to an early grave. 
Among other incidents of the voyage, Mrs. 
Shepard's miraculous preservation from "immi- 
nent and apparent death," ought not to be passed 
over in silence. In one of the violent storms 
which they experienced, she was, by the sudden 
lurching of tlie ship, thrown head foremost, 
with the child in her arms, directly towards a 
large iron bolt ; and " being ready to fall, she 
felt herself plucked back by she knew not 
what," whereby both she and the child escaped 
all injury, — a wonderful interposition which Mr. 
Shepard and others who witnessed it, could as- 
cribe to nothinjTf but " the anofels of God who 
are ministering spirits for the heirs of life. 'y> 

On the second day of October, 1635, after 
fifty-four wearisome days upon the sea, they 
came in sight of the land where they hoped to 
find rest both for the body and the soul ; and on 
the third, they landed safely at Boston, " with re- 
joicing in God after a longsome voyage," and 
amidst the hearty congratulations of numerous 
friends whose houses were hospitably thrown 
open for their accommodation. Mr. Shepard 
15^ 



174 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

and his family were kindly provided for at the 
house of Mr. Coddington, — then treasurer of the 
colony, — where they remained until after the 
Sabbath : and on Monday, October 5, they 
removed to Newtown, which was to be their 
future field of labor, and their quiet home. 



LIFE OF THOMAS S II E T A K D . 175 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Sketch of the early history of Newtown. Organization of the second 
church in Newtown. Deatli of Mrs. Shepard. Sickness of Thomas. 
Antinomian controversy. Mr. Shepard's position and influence in 
this controversy. First Synod in Newton. Mr Hooker's objec- 
tions. Result of Synod. 

■wNewtown, afterwards called Cambridge, was 
selected as the site of a town which the set- 
tlers intended to fortify and make the metropolis 
of the Massachusetts colony. In the spring of 
the year 1631, Winthrop, who had the year pre- 
ceding been chosen Governor, came to this 
place, and set up the frame of a house upon the 
spot where he first pitched his tent. The Deputy 
Governor, Dudley, completed a house for him- 
self, and removed his family, with the expecta- 
tion that this was to be the seat of government. 
The town was laid out near Charles river in 
squares, the streets intersecting each other at 
right angles. It soon became evident, however, 
that Boston was to be the chief place of com- 
merce ; and the neighboring Indians, having 
ceased their hostility and made overtures of per- 



176 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

petual friendship with the colonists, Governor 
Winlhrop removed the frame of his house to 
Boston, and the scheme of a fortified town here 
was abandoned. 

But though ihe design of making Newtown 
the capital of the colony was given up, it re- 
mained still under the especial care and direc- 
tion of the government. The annual election 
of Governor and Magistrates was, for some time, 
held here ; and in 1632, the General Court appro- 
priated sixty pounds, to be raised by the several 
plantations, towards erecting a Palisade about it. 
The first settlers of the town, though kw in 
number, were generally in good circumstances ; 
and they soon received a valuable accession by 
the arrival of a company, recently from England, 
who had commenced a settlement at Brain- 
tree, but who, by direction of the General 
Court, removed to Newtown in August 1632. 
Winthrop calls them " Mr. Hooker's Company," 
from which it may be inferred that they were 
from that part of the county of Essex, where Mr. 
Hooker was settled. Mr. Hooker, however, did 
not come over with this company, and the people 
of Newtown had as yet no minister; but they 
erected a meeting-house preparatory to the set- 
tlement of the ministry and the ordinance of the 



LIFE OF T ILO MAS SHE 1' A 11 1) . 177 

Gospel among them, feeling, as one of the early- 
Fathers remarks, that a country however heauti- 
ful and prosperous, without a Gospel ministry- 
is, "like a blacksmith without his fire." 

Mr. Hooker, in company with Mr. Cotton and 
Mr. Stone arrived in the month of September 
1633, and on the 11th of October following, he 
with Mr. Stone for his assistant, was ordained 
over the people of Newtown, many of whom 
had sat under his ministry in England, and af- 
ter their settlement here, had never ceased to 
importune him to come and take the pastoral 
charge of them. In May 1634, the people of 
Newtown, being as they alledged straitened for 
room, and having obtained leave of the General 
Court to look out a place either for extension or 
removal, sent several of their number to Aga- 
wam, and Merrimack, to find if possible a more 
suitable location for their growing community. 
Not succeeding to their satisfaction in this at- 
tempt, they petitioned for leave to remove to the 
banks of the Connecticut river, where they were 
certain of finding ample territory, and a fruitful 
soil. The subject was earnestly discussed in the 
General Court for several days. The principal ar- 
guments in favor of granting the petition were — 
that the people, without more land for their cat- 



178 LIFE OF THOMAS SIIEPARD. 

tie, could not maintain their minister, or receive 
any more of their friends who might be disposed 
to come and assist them ; — that if the fertile coun- 
try upon the Connecticut were not speedily oc- 
cupied by a colony from Massachusetts, the 
Dutch or the English might take possession of 
it, which would be very undesirable ; — that the 
towns in the colony were located too near each 
other ; — and finally, that they were strongly in- 
clined, and in fact had made up their minds to 
go, — a reason as conclusive, perhaps, as any 
other. To what they avowed as the grounds of 
their desire to remove so far from the parent 
colony, some have ventured to guess at one which 
they never avowed, and probably never thought 
of, namely, that Mr. Hooker's light would shine 
more brightly, and be more conspicuous, if it 
were farther from the golden candlestick of the 
church in Boston. 

On the other hand a variety of reasons were 
urged against their removal. It was said that 
being united in one body with the Massachusetts 
colony, and being bound by oath to seek the 
good of the Commonwealth, it would be wrong, 
in point of conscience, to allow them to separate 
from their brethren ; — that the colony was weak 
and constantly in danger of being attacked by 



LIFE OF THOMAS S 11 EPA R I). 179 

its enemies, and therefore could not afford to 
spare so large a number of their most influen- 
tial citizens ; — that the departure of Mr. Hooker 
would not only draw awa}^ many from the 
colony, but divert to a distant part of the coun- 
try friends who would otherwise settle here ; — 
that by removing the}^ would be exposed to 
great danger, from the Dutch, who claimed the 
Connecticut country, and had already built a 
fort there, from the Indians, and from the 
English government, which would not permit 
them to settle without a patent in any place to 
which the king laid claim ; — that they might be 
accommodated at home by enlargement from 
other towns, or by removal to any other place 
within the patent; — and finally, that it would be 
the removal of a candlestick out of its place, 
which was a calamity by all means to be avoided 
if possible. 

When the question was taken, the Governor 
and two Assistants voted in the affirmative, — the 
Deputy Governor, together with the other As- 
sistants and all the Deputies, in the negative. 
At this stage of the business a controversy arose 
between the Court of Magistrates and the 
Deputies respecting the legal effect of this vote, 
not necessary to be described here. It is suffi- 
cient to say that the proceedings of the Court 



180 LIFE OF THOMAS SIIEFARD. 

were brought to a stand ; and so great, in their 
opinion, was the importance of the question 
respecting " the negative voice," which divided 
them, that a day of fasting and prayer for 
Divine direction was set apart, by public 
authority. Accordingly the 18th day of Sep- 
tember was observed by all the churches in 
the colony. On the 24th of the same month 
the Court again met at Newtown. Mr. Hooker 
was requested to deliver a discourse upon the 
important occasion ; but he declining on the 
ground that his personal interest in the question 
rendered him unfit for this service, the delicate 
and difficult task was, by desire of the whole 
Court, performed by Mr. Cotton. He chose for 
his text Haggai 2 : 4, from which he took occa- 
sion to describe the nature, or the strength, as 
he termed it, of the Magistracy, of the Ministry, 
and of the People. The strength of the Magis- 
tracy, he asserted to be their authority, — of the 
Ministry, their purity, — and of the People, their 
liberty ; — shewing that each of these had a nega- 
tive voice in relation to the other, and yet the 
right of ultimate decision was in the whole body 
of the people, — answering all objections, — and 
exhorting the people to maintain their liberties 
against all unjust and violent attempts to take 
them away. 



LIFE OF THOMAS STIEPARD. 181 

This discourse gave great satisfaction to all 
parties. The court resumed its discussions in a 
better and more forbearing spirit ; and although 
the deputies were not satisfied that the negative 
voice should be left to the magistrates, yet the 
subject was by common consent dropped for that 
time. The result was that the people of New- 
town, seeing how unwilling their brethren were 
that they should remove to Connecticut, came 
forward and accepted such lands as had been 
oflfered for their accommodation, by Boston and 
Watertown. This arrangement, however, was 
not long satisfactory. \ The people of Newtown, 
having fixed their eyes and their minds upon 
the fine country upon the Connecticut, soon be- 
gan to revive the project of removal, and many 
in the neighboring towns being desirous of join- 
ing them in this enterprise, the General Court 
at length gave them leave to remove whither 
they would, on condition of their remaining 
under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. 

The place selected by the agents of New- 
town, was called by the natives Suckiaug, 
where, towards the close of the year 1635, a 
plantation was commenced by a few of their 
number, the great body of the people with their 
ministers intending to follow them during the 
ensuing year. Accordingly, early in the sum- 

VOL. IV. 16 



182 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

mer of 1636, Messrs. Hooker and Stone, with 
about one hundred persons, composing the whole, 
or very nearly the whole of the congregation, left 
Newtown and traveled through a pathless wil- 
derness to the place which they had chosen as 
their inheritance. They had no guide but their 
compass. Like the Patriarchs, they drove be- 
fore them their flocks and herds, and fed upon 
the milk of their kine by the way. ...After a long 
and tedious journey they reached Suckiaug on 
the Connecticut, and laid the foundation of the 
city of Hartford. 

Upon the removal of Mr. Hooker's congrega- 
tion, Mr. Shepard and those who accompanied 
him, about sixty in all, purchased the houses 
thus left vacant, to dwell in until they should 
find a more suitable place for a permanent set- 
tlement. The majority, however, soon became 
desirous of remaining at Newtown, and were 
unwilling to remove farther, " partly because of 
the fellowship of the churches ; partly, because 
they thought their lives were short, and remov- 
als to new plantations full of troubles ; partly, 
because they found sufficient for themselves and 
company." They therefore resolved to remain, 
and without further delay, to organize them- 
selves into a church for the enjoyment of those 
gospel privileges which they had suffered so 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEl'ARD. 183 

much to secure. LThe necessary arrangements 
were accordingly made, and on the first day of 
February, 1636, corresponding to Feb. 11th, 
new style, a public assembly was convened, and 
a church, the first permanent one in Cambridge, 
and the eleventh in Massachusetts, was duly 
organized. The following account of this sol- 
emn transaction, given by an eye witness, is 
exceedingly interesting for the light which it 
throws upon the manner of constituting church- 
es in the time of our Fathers. 
^ " Mr. Shepard, a godly minister come lately 
out of England, and divers other good Christ- 
ians, intending to raise a church body, came and 
acquainted the magistrates therewith, who gave 
their approbation. They also sent to all the 
neighboring churches for their elders to give 
their assistance, at a certain day, at Newtowrij. 
when they should constitute their body. Ac- 
cordingly, at this day, there met a great assem- 
bly, where the proceeding was as followeth : 
Mr. Shepard, and two others, — who were after 
to be chosen to office, — sat together in the elders' 
seat. Then the elder of them began with 
prayer. After this Mr. Shepard prayed with 
deep confession of sin, &c., and exercised out of 
Eph. 5 : 27, " That he might present it to him- 
self a glorious church," &c., and also opened 



184 LIFE OF THOMAS SIIEPARD. 

the cause of their meeting. Then the elder de- 
sired to know of the churches assembled, what 
number were needful to make a church, and 
how they ought to proceed in this action. 
Whereupon some of the ancient ministers, con- 
ferring shortly together, gave answer : That the 
Scripture did not set dow^n any certain rule for 
the number. Three, they thought, were too few, 
because by Matthew 18th an appeal was allowed 
from three; but that seven might be a fit num- 
ber. And, for their proceeding, they advised, 
that such as were to join should make confes- 
sion of their faith, and declare what work of 
grace the Lord had wrought in them ; which 
accordingly they did, Mr. Shepard first, then 
four others, then the elder, and one who was to 
be deacon, — who had also prayed, — and anoth- 
er member. Then the covenant was read, and 
they all gave a solemn assent to it. Then the 
elder desired of the churches, that, if they did 
approve them to be a church, they would give 
them the right hand of fellowship. Whereupon 
Mr. Cotton, upon short speech with some others 
near him, in the name of their churches, gave 
his hand to the elder, with a short speech of 
their assent, and desired the peace of the Lord 
Jesus to be with them. Then Mr. Shepard 
made an exhortation to the rest of his body, 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 1S5 

about the nature of their covenant, and to stand 
firm to it, and commended them to tlie Lord in 
a most heavenly prayer. Then the elder told 
the assembly, that they were intended to choose 
Mr. Shepard for their pastor, (by the name of 
the brother who had exercised) and desired the 
churches, that, if they had any thing to except 
against him, they would impart it to them be- 
fore the day of ordination. Then he gave 
the churches thanks for their assistance, and 
so left them to the Lord.'""' Mr. Shepard's , 
ordination, or rather installation, took place soon 
after, but the exact date of it is not known. It 
was probably deferred, as Mather suggests, 
on account of the lateness of the hour, and for 
the purpose of having ample time for the per- 
formance of those solemnities which they thought 
suitable to such an occasion. 
f Mr. Shepard's ministry in Newtown com- 
menced under the pressure of heavy domestic 
affliction. Within a fortnight after the organi- 
zation of the church, his wife Margaret, whose 
health had been for some time rapidly failing, 
was taken from him by death. It had been her 
great desire to see her husband in a place of 
safety among God's people, and to leave her 



♦ Winthrop's Journal, 1. 179, ISO. 



/ 



186 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

child under the pure ordinances of the gos- 
pel. Her desire was granted. Having been 
received into the fellowship of the church, — 
having given up her dear child in the ordinance 
of baptism,-T^and having witnessed the hopeful 
beginning of the work for which she had sacri- 
ficed all the comforts of life, and even life itself, 
she was enabled to say, with Simeon of old, 
*' Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in 
peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." 
The precious ordinances for which she had 
pined amidst the privations and dangers of their 
wandering life, were the means of greatly cheer- 
ing her under the wasting power of disease, and 
of fillins: her soul with a sense of God's love 
which continued until the last breath. Nothing 
can be more beautiful or touching than Mr. 
Shepard's reference to the baptism of his 
son, and to the early death of his " incompara- 
bly loving," amiable, and pious wife, — a passage 
which many a baptized child may read with tears.J 
" On the seventh of February, God gave thee 
the ordinance of baptism, whereby God is be- 
come thy God, and is beforehand with thee, that 
whenever thou shalt return to God, he will un- 
doubtedly receive thee ; this is a most high and 
happy privilege, and therefore bless God for it. 
And now, after this had been done, thy dear 



LIFE OF THOMAS SlIEPARD. 187 

mother died in the Lord, departing out of this 
world to another, who did lose her life by being 
careful to preserve thine ; for in the ship thou 
wert so feeble and froward both in the day and 
night, that hereby she lost her strength and at 
last her life. She hath made also many a 
prayer and shed many a tear for thee ; and this 
hath been oft her request that if the Lord did 
not intend to glorify himself by thee, that he 
would cut thee off by death rather than to live 
to dishonor him by sin. And therefore know 
it, that if thou shalt turn rebel against God, and 
forsake him, and care not for the knowledge of 
him, nor believe in his Son, the Lord will make 
all these mercies, woes ; and all thy mother's 
prayers, tears, and death, to be a swift witness 
against thee at the great day.'"^ 

The child to whom this affecting appeal was 
made, was afterwards brought very low by a 
humor which filled his mouth, lips, and cheeks 
with blisters, so that it w^as difficult for him to 
take sufficient nourishment to sustain life. 
When the humor left his mouth it seized upon 
his eyes ; and in a short time he became quite 
blind, " with pearls upon both eyes and a white 
film, insomuch that it was a dreadful sight unto 
all the beholders of him, and very pitiful.'' 



* Introduction to Aulobiographhy. 



188 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

( None but a father can realize the distress which 
Mr. Shepard felt at the prospect that his only- 
son was to be blind through the remainder of 
his life. But he was mercifully spared this 
severe affliction. When he had become con- 
vinced that he must have " a blind child to be a 
constant sorrow to him till his death," and was 
made contented to " bear the indignation of the 
Lord because he had sinned," resolving now to 
" fear nor grieve no more, but to be thankful, 
nay to love the Lord, — suddenly and strangely, 
by the use of a poor weak means, namely, the 
• oil of white paper," the child was restored to 
sight again, to the great joy of the father, who 
regarded the cure as a gracious answer to his 
earnest prayers.,/ The manner in which Mr. 
Shepard used this event to awaken the gratitude 
of his child, when in after years he should learn 
how wonderfully he had been preserved from 
one of the greatest temporal calamities, is wor- 
thy of remembrance. •" Now consider, my son, 
and remember to lift up thine eyes to heaven, 
to God, in everlasting praises of him, and 
dependence upon him ; and take heed thou dost 
not make thine eyes windows of lust, but give 
thine eyes, nay thy heart and whole soul and 
body to him that hath been so careful of thee 
when thou couldst not care for thyself." 



LIFE OF THOMAS S II E P A K D . 1S9 

These domestic afflictions were soon followed 
by trials of another sort, which, to a minister of 
Christ so deeply interested in the prosperity of 
the church as Mr. Shepard was, were perhaps 
more difficult to be borne with patience, and 
called for a larger measure of grace. He found 
that the people of God are exposed to " perils in 
the wilderness," as well as in the crowded 
thoroughfares of the world ; and that Christ 
may be as deeply wounded in the house of his 
friends, as among the armies of the aliens. The 
church at Newtown had been organized but a 
short time, and had but just begun to enjoy the 
liberty and the rest for which so many sacrifices 
had been made, when the peace of all the 
■churches in the colony, was violently disturbed 
by the opinions and practices of the Antinomi- 
ans, which were first promulgated in this part 
of the world by Mrs. Hutchinson. As Mr. Shep- 
ard bore a distinguished part in that controversy, 
and exerted no small influence in bringing it to 
a triumphant conclusion, a few words respecting 
its origin and effects may here be expected. 

Mr. Hutchinson, who had been an intimate 
friend and a great admirer of Mr. Cotton in 
England, came to Boston in company with 
Henry Vane, in 1633. His wife was a woman 



190 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

of a masculine understanding, and of fiery zeal 
in religion. Mr. Cotton, whom she held in the 
highest estimation and respect, said of her, at an 
early period of her residence here, that " she 
was well-beloved," and that " all the faithful em- 
braced her conference, and blessed God for her 
fruitful discourses," — a commendation, which, 
if she ever deserved, she soon forfeited by her 
gross heresies in doctrine and in practice. At 
Boston she was treated with great respect, not 
only by Mr. Cotton, but by other distinguished 
persons, among whom was Mr. Vane, who in 
1636 was chosen governor of the colony, in the 
room of Winthrop. It was natural that the 
high consideration in which she was held by 
the leading men in the church and state, should 
awaken her vanity and give her great influ- 
ence with the people. In imitation of the breth- 
ren of the church of Boston, who held weekly 
meetings for religious conference, she soon 
established a meeting of women at her house, 
in obedience, as she pretended, to the apostoli- 
cal precept that " the aged women should be 
teachers of good things ; " and especially that 
they should " teach the young women to be so- 
ber." The novelty of this proceeding among the 
Puritans, who, in obedience to another apostol- 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 191 

ical injunction, never suffered " a woman to speak 
in the church," together with the reputation of 
the innovator, soon collected an audience of sixty 
or eighty women at her house every week, to 
hear her prayers, her exhortations, and her ex- 
planations, — seldom probably correct, — of Mr. 
Cotton's sermons. 

In these meetings, held professedly for the 
purpose of promoting the edification of the 
younger women, but designed to diffuse a new 
light among the men also, Mrs. Hutchinson was 
not long satisfied to be the humble expositor of 
Mr. Cotton's doctrines, but soon ventured to 
broach some opinions of her own, which, how- 
ever, she pretended to confirm by an unfair and 
fraudulent use of Mr. Cotton's authority. The 
fundamental position which she assumed, and 
maintained with a fierce enthusiasm, was that a 
Christian should not look to any Christian 
graces, or to any conditional promises made to 
faith or sanclification, as evidence of God's 
special grace and love towards him, — this being 
a way of works ; but, without the appearance 
of any grace, faith, holiness, or change in him- 
self, must rest upon an absolute promise made 
in an immediate revelation to his soul. In con- 
nection with this doctrine, and as the legitimate 



192 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

results of it, she taught that the Holy Ghost 
dwells personally in a justified person ; that the 
command to work out our salvation with fear 
and trembling, is addressed to none but such 
as are under the covenant of works ; that 
personal holiness is not to be regarded as a 
sign of a justified state ; that there is no such 
thing as inherent righteousness ; that immedi- 
ate revelations respecting future events are to 
be expected by believers, and should be received 
as equally authoritative and infallible with the 
Scriptures ; together with many other absurd 
and foolish notions, which, it would seem, that 
none but persons extremely ignorant or partially 
insane, could possibly believe. 

That Mrs. Hutchinson received these opinions 
from Mr. Cotton, as she and her followers pre- 
tended, is not credible. It is true that Mr. Cot- 
ton at one time entertained a too favorable opin- 
ion of the piety and talents of this enthusiastic 
innovator ; and for awhile bore no decided 
testimony against the errors that were dividing 
and distracting the church. The consequence 
was that he was claimed by both parties in this 
controversy ; the Antinomians declaring that 
their doctrines were legitimate inferences from 
his preaching, and had his sanction, — the ortho- 



LIFE OF T II O I\I A S S H E P A R D . 1 93 



doxonthe other hand, affirming that he adhered 
to the common faith, and disavowed their hereti- 
cal sentiments. This state of the public mind 
called for an open and explicit declaration of 
his sentiments, which, as soon as he fully under- 
stood the use made of his authority by the Anti- 
nomians, he made, to the satisfaction of his 
brethren, and to the dismay and discomfiture of 
the heretics. He at once, as is usual in such 
cases, became the object of the hatred and re- 
proaches of the party which he had seemed, — 
and only seemed, — to favor. They called him 
a coward, who dared not avow his real princi- 
ples ; a double-minded man, who taught one 
thing in the pulpit, and another in private con 
ference ; a blind guide, who had lost all insight 
into the spirit of the gospel ; and so bitter, and 
at the same time so vulgar was the hatred with 
which they persecuted the good man, that one 
of the party sent him a pound of candles, with 
the impudent intimation that he was in " great 
need of light." 

It has been sometimes said, in later times, 
that this Antinomian controversy was a strife, — 
a mere jargon of words while the parties were 
really of one mind respecting justification and 
sanctification. But a careful examination will 
show that it was a strife between two difl^ercnt 

VOL. IV. 17 



194 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

and opposite gospels, and exhibited totally dif- 
ferent grounds of hope to sinners. The Anti- 
nomians were heretics of the worst and most 
dangerous sort. By their mode of advancing 
free grace, says Shepard, they denied and 
destroyed all evidence of inherent grace in us ; 
by crying up Christ, they destroyed the use 
of faith to apply to him ; by advancing the 
spirit and revelations by the spirit, they de- 
stroyed or weakened the revelation by the Script- 
ures ; by depending on Christ's righteous- 
ness and justification without the works of the 
law, they destroyed the use of the law, and 
made it no rule of life to a Christian ; by im- 
agining an evidence by justification, they de- 
stroyed all evidence by effectual vocation and 
sanctification. Their opinions were " mere fig 
leaves to cover some distempers and lusts lurk- 
ing in men's hearts ;" and hence it was that 
after they regarded themselves as once sealed, 
and consequently in Christ, and had received 
the witness, they never doubted, though they 
fell into the foulest and most scandalous sins ; 
and to renew their repentance, they spoke of is 
a sign of great weakness."^ 

Absurd, licentious, and destructive as these 



* New Enqland's Laiiiciuaiions for Old England's Errors, p. 4. 



LIFE OF THOMAS S H E P A R D . 1 95 

opinions were, they spread among the people 
with astonishing rapidity ; and wherever they 
took root they produced the bitter fruits of 
aUenation, hatred, and slander. The converts 
to the new opinions were, as Shepard justly 
called them, " the scourges of the land, and the 
most subtle enemies of the power of godliness." 
By their clamor " the ancient and received truths 
came to be darkened, God's name to be blas- 
phemed, the churches glory diminished, many 
godly persons grieved, many wretches harden- 
ed, deceiving and being deceived, growing worse 
and worse." They labored to destroy the repu- 
tation of all those ministers who held the com- 
monly received doctrines, stigmatizing them as 
legal preachers Vv^ho were under a covenant of 
works, — who never knew Christ themselves, — 
and who could not be the instruments of bringing 
men into the light and liberty of the gospel. 
They encouraged ignorant men and women to 
become preachers, and applauded their minis- 
trations as more eflectual than that of any of the 
^^ black coats," — as they contemptuously styled 
the regular ministers, — who had been at the 
*' Ninneversity." They opposed the marching of 
the troops that had been raised to assist the 
people of Connecticut against the Pequods, upon 



196 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

the ground that the officers and soldiers were 
too much under a covenant of works. 

In an incredibly short time, this fanatical 
spirit divided not only the church of Boston, but 
a large number of the churches of Massachusetts 
and Plj^mouth. The people became disaffected 
towards the ministers, and prejudiced against 
all their public and private instruction. Many 
who had been converted, apparently by the in- 
strumentality of these ministers in England, — 
who had followed them into this wilderness to 
sit under their ministrations, — who had been, 
like the Galatians, ready to pluck out their own 
eyes, and give them to their pastors, — now for- 
sook their parish churches, and greedily listened 
to the ravings of insanity or ignorance. Some 
of the leading men in the colony, among whom 
were Vane, Coddington, and others, took sides 
with these disturbers of the peace. Fami- 
lies, as well as churches, were divided and 
alienated. It became common, says Winthrop, 
to distinguish men by being under a covenant of 
grace or a covenant of works, as in other coun- 
tries, between protestants and papists. The mis- 
chief spread into all associations, civil as well 
as religious, " insomuch that the greater part of 
this new transported people stood still, many of 



/ 



LIFE OF THOMAS S II E P A R D . 197 

them gazing one upon another, like sheep let 
loose to feed on fresh pasture, being stopped and 
startled in their course by a kennel of devouring 
wolves. The weaker sort wavered much, and 
such as were grown Christians hardly durst dis- 
cover the truth they held one unto another. 
The fogs of error increasing, the bright beams 
of the glorious gospel of our Lord Christ in the 
mouth of his ministers, could not be discerned 
through the thick mists by many ; and that 
sweet, refreshing warmth that was formerly felt 
from the Spirit's influence, was now turned, in 
these errorists, to a hot inflammation of their own 
conceited revelations, ulcerating, and bringing 
little less than frenzy or madness to the pa- 
tient." =^ 

In the midst of all this excitement and con- 
fusion, Mr. Shepard continued steadfast in the 
faith; and through his vigilance, faithfulness, 
and discriminating ministry, the church of 
Newtown was preserved from the least taint of 
this heresy. He had been somewhat familiar 
with the doctrines and spirit of the Antinomians 
in his younger days in England, and he had 
sufficient " light to see through these devices of 



* Wonder-working Providence, p. 100. 

17# 



198 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

men's heads," which many of his brethren, able 
as they were, wanted ; and though it was a sad 
disappointment to him to be called so soon into 
the heat of controversy, and " a most uncom- 
fortable time to live in contention" with those 
who professed to be disciples of Christ, yet it 
was a duty he could not shun ; and he had the 
satisfaction and the honor of being a principal 
instrument in bringing this unhappy excitement 
to an end. 

One of the means by which he destroyed the 
influence of the heretics in his own congrega- 
tion, was the delivery of that admirable course of 
Sermons upon the Parable of the Ten Virgins, 
which, after his death, were published by his son 
Thomas, assisted by his successor, Mr. Mitchel. 
They were commenced in 1636, when the leaven 
of Familistn or Antinomianism was most pow- 
erfully at work among the people, and finished 
in 1640, when it was mostly purged away ; and 
were designed to refute the impudent heresy of 
that time, and establish the assaulted truth. 
They constitute the largest, and, in some respects, 
the most valuable of his works, and are emi- 
nently adapted to expose all false religion, while 
real Christians will find in them abundant in- 
struction and encouragement. In the celebrated 
" Treatise on the Religious Affections," Pres- 



LIFE OF THOMAS SIIEPARD. 199 

ident Edwards makes a freer use of this book 
than of any other. His whole work is pervaded 
by its spirit, and he acknowledges, by nearly a 
hundred quotations, his obligations to Mr. Shep- 
ard for some of his profoundest thoughts. He 
rendered another important service to the colony 
during that stormy season, by his Election Ser- 
mon. :■ 

By the help of the pious Johnson, we obtain 
a glimpse of Mr. Shepard in the pulpit, as 
well as of his mode of handling this knotty 
subject. In the course of this " dismal year 
of 1636," a pious man, who like many others, 
had left his native land to enjoy the liberty of 
the gospel here, arrived in New England, ex- 
pecting to find the wilderness blossoming as the 
rose under the labors of the able ministers who 
had preceded him ; but, to his amazement, he 
found the whole country in a state of confusion, 
and was at once addressed in a new theological 
language which was entirely unintelligible to 
him. " Take here," says Johnson, in his rude, 
quaint manner, referring to this man, " the sor- 
rowful complaint of a poor soul in miss of its 
expectation at landing, who being encountere^d 
with some of these errorists at his first landing, 
when he 'saw that good old way of Christ re- 
jected by them, and he could not skill in that 



200 LIFE OF THOIMAS SHEPARD. 

new light which was the common theme of 
every man's discourse, he betook him to a nar- 
row Indian path, in which his serious medita- 
tions soon led him where none but senseless 
trees and echoing rocks make answer to his 
heart-easing moan. ' Oh,' quoth he, ' where am 
I become ? Is this the place where those rever- 
end preachers are fled, that Christ was pleased 
to make use of to rouse up his rich graces in 
many a drooping soul ? Here have I met with 
some that tell me I must take a naked Christ. 
Oh, woe is me ; if Christ be naked to me where- 
with shall I be clothed ? But methinks I most 
wonder they tell me of casting off all godly sor- 
row for sin as unbeseeming a soul that is united 
to Christ by faith. And there was a little 
nimble-tongued woman among them, who said 
she could bring me acquainted with one of her 
own sex that would show me a way, if I could 
attain it, even revelations, full of such ravishing 
joy, that I should never have cause to be sorry 
for sin, so long as I live, and, as for her part, 
she had attained it already. ' A company of 
legal professors,' quoth she, ' lie poring on the 
law which Christ hath abolished, and when you 
break it, then you break your joy, and now no 
way will serve your turn but a deep sorrow.' 
These, and divers other expressions, intimate 



LIFE OF TflOBIAS SHEPARD.201 

unto me that here I shall find little increase in 
the graces of Christ, through the hearing of his 
word preached, and other of his blessed ordi- 
nances. O cunning devil, the Lord Christ 
rebuke thee, that, under the pretence of a free 
and ample gospel, shuts out the soul from par- 
taking with the divine nature of Christ, in that 
mystical union of his blessed Spirit, creating and 
continuing his graces in the soul. My dear 
Christ, it was thy work that moved me hither 
to come, hoping to find thy powerful presence in 
the preaching of the word, aUhough adminis- 
tered by sorry men, subject to like infirmities 
with others of God's people; and also by the 
glass of the law, to have my sinful, corrupt na- 
ture discovered daily more and more, and my 
utter inability to any thing that is good, magni- 
fying hereby the free grace of Christ, who of 
his good will and pleasure vvorketh in us to will 
and to do, working all our works in us, and for 
us. But here they tell me of a naked Christ. 
What is the whole life of a Christian, but 
through the power of Christ, to die to sin and to 
live to holiness and righteousness, and to that 
end to be diligent in the use of means.' 

" At the uttering of this word he starts up 
from the green bed of his complaint, with reso- 
lution to hear some one of these able ministers 



202 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPAKD. 

preach, whom report had so highly valued, be- 
fore his will should make choice of any one 
principle. Then, turning his face to the sun, he 
steered his course toward the next town ; and, 
after some small travel, he came to a large plain. 
No sooner was he entered thereon, but hearing 
the sound of a drum, he was directed toward it 
by a broad beaten way. Following this road, he 
demands of the next man he met, what the sig- 
nal of the drum meant. The reply was made, 
they had as yet no bell to call men to meeting, 
and therefore made use of a drum. ' Who is it,' 
quoth he, ' lectures at this town ? ' The other 
replies, ' I see you are a stranger, new come 
over, seeing you know not the man : it is one 
Mr. Shepard.' ' Verily', quoth the other, 'you 
have hit the right. I am new come over, in- 
deed, and have been told since I came, that 
most of your ministers are legal preachers ; 
only, if I mistake not, they told me this man 
preached a finer covenant of works than the 
others. But, however, I shall make what haste 
I can to hear him. Fare you well.' Then 
hastening thither, he crowdeth through the 
thickest, where having stayed while the glass 
was turned up twice, the man was metamor- 
phosed ; and was fain to hang down the head 
often, lest his watery eyes should blab abroad 



LIFE OF THOMAS SIIEPARD. 203 

the secret conjunction of his afTertions, his heart 
crying loud to his Lord's echoing answer, to his 
blessed Spirit, that caused the speech of a poor, 
weak, pale-complexioned man, to take such im- 
pression in his soul at present, by applying the 
word so aptly, as if he had been his privy coun- 
cillor ; clearing Christ's work of grace in the 
soul from all those false doctrines which the 
erroneous party had affrighted him withal ; and 
he resolves, — the Lord willing, — to live and die 
with the ministers of New England, whom he 
now saw the Lord had not only made zealous 
to stand for the truth of his discipline, but also 
for the doctrine, and not to give ground one 
inch.'"^ 

The Antinomian excitement reached its great- 
est height towards the close of the year 1636, 
and the beginning of 1637. Though defeated 
at the annual election in their attempt to con- 
tinue Vane, — the head of their party, — in the 
office of Governor, the Antinomians were pow- 
erful enough to menace the safety of the State 
as well as of the churches. They were every 
where bold, impudent, and restless. When 
they were complained of in the civil courts for 
misdemeanors, or summoned before the church 



* Wonder-working Providence, pp. 100, 104. 



204 LIFE OF THOMAS SIIEPARD. 

for question or censure, they had many respect- 
able and influential persons to defend them, 
and lo protest against any sentence, civil or ec- 
clesiastical, which might be passed against 
them ; and when they were condemned, there 
were enough to raise a mutiny against the gov- 
ernment on their behalf. Great efforts were 
made, both by magistrates and ministers, to heal 
this plague in the church. Innumerable ser- 
mons were preached against the erroneous doc- 
trines. Conferences were held with the leaders 
of the fanatics, sometimes privately before the 
elders, sometimes publicly before the whole con- 
gregation, where they had liberty to say all that 
could be said in defence of their sentiments, and 
v/ere heard with great patience. Every thing 
which individual influence could do, was done 
to root out these pestilent opinions, and to re- 
store peace to the distracted colony. 

At length, when all hope of removing this 
evil by the usual means was given up, the Gen- 
eral Court, in consultation with the ministers, 
determined to call a synod of all the churches in 
New England, for the purpose of settling this 
controversy, agreeably to the example of the 
primitive church, referred to in the Acts of the 
Apostles. Three things were judged expedient 
as a necessary preparation for this great meas- 



LIFE O F T II M A S S II E P A R 1) . 205 



ure. A general fast to seek the Divine Pres- 
ence with the synod ; — a collection of all the 
erroneous opinions, amounting" to above eighty, 
which it rniglit be necessary to discuss ; — and a 
friendly conference with Mr. Cotton, respecting 
any expressions of his which might have seemed 
to give countenance to the errors that were 
troubling the country. 

These preparatory steps having been taken, 
the proposed synod was convened at Newtown, 
August 30th, 1637. That Mr. Shepard was a 
prominent agent in procuring this synod, and a 
very influential member of it, is evident from 
many circumstances, particularly from the fact 
that Mr. Hooker, in April preceding, addressed 
to him a letter dissuading him from using his 
influence in its behalf. " Your general synod," 
says Mr. Hooker, "I cannot yet see either hovv 
reasonable or how salutary it will be for your 
turn, for the settling and establishing the truth 
in that honorable way as were to be desired. 
My ground is this : they will be chief agents 
in the synod who are chief parties in the cause, 
and for them only, who are prejudiced in the 
controversy, to pass sentence against cause or 
person, — how improper! How unprofitable! 
My present thoughts ran thus : That such con- 
clusions which are most extra, most erroneous, 

VOL. IV. 18 



206 LIFE OF THOMAS SIIEPARD. 

and cross to the common current, send them 
over to the godly learned to judge in our own 
country, and return their apprehensions. I sup- 
pose the issue will be more uncontrollable. If any 
should suggest this \vas the way to make the 
clamor too great and loud, and to bring a preju- 
dice upon the Plantations, I should soon answer, 
there is nothing done in corners here but it is 
openly there related ; and in such notorious 
cases, which cannot be kept secret, the most 
plain and naked relation ever causeth the truth 
most to appear, and prevents all groundless and 
needless jealousies, whereby men are apt to 
make things more and worse than they are.'"^ 
We have no letter of Mr. Shepard in reply to 
this : but it cannot be doubted that he did answer 
these arguments against the propriety of deter- 
mining the disputed points by a synod, and it 
was his answer, probably, that changed Mr. 
Hooker's thoughts in relation to this matter. 
However that may be, it is certain that the Con- 
necticut pastor afterwards took a different view 
of the subject, and judged it expedient to attend 
the synod, and to take a leading part in all its 
proceedings. 

The synod, consisting of all the ministers and 



* Hutchinson's Hist. Mass. vol. 1. 



LIFE OF THOMAS S II !•: T A R D . 207 

messengers of the New England churches, 
together with a few who had recently arrived 
but were yet unsettled, was organized by the 
choice of Mr. Hooker, and Mr. Buckley, joint 
moderators. [ The first session was opened by 
Mr. Shepard with one of his " heavenly 
prayers." After the organization of the synod, 
the erroneous opinions which had been spread 
through the country, some of them, as Cotton 
declared, blasphemous, some incongruous, and 
all unsafe, together with the texts of Scripture 
which had been perverted in support of them, 
and certain " unsavoury speeches," that had 
been used in the heat of dispute, were read and 
fully discussed, — and finally unanimously con- 
demned. The synod continued in session about 
a month, and all the Antinomians, who desired 
it, had liberty to be present, and freedom of 
speech, restrained only by the laws of order and 
decency. L There was, says Shepard, " a most 
wonderful presence of Christ's spirit in that as- 
sembly," and the general result of its delibera- 
tions was, that through the grace and power of 
Christ, the pernicious errors which had well 
nigh brought the church to desolation, " were 
discovered, — the defenders of them convinced 
and ashamed, — the truth established, — and the 
consciences of the saints settled.''* The pub- 



208 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPAKD. 

lie condemnation of these errors, and the testi- 
mony of the synod against them, were subscribed 
by nearly all the ministers and messengers pres- 
ent; but some, among whom was Mr. Cotton, 
while they reprobated the leading doctrines of 
the Antinomians, and all the monstrous inferen- 
ces from them, as sincerely and as deeply as 
any members of the synod, declined subscribing 
the Result, because subscription was a word of 
ill omen among the Puritans. The doings of 
the synod, sustained by the zealous cooperation 
of the ministers and the uninfected portion of 
the churches, finally resulted in the restoration 
of sound doctrine and of good order among the 
people. All the churches accepted the result, 
and generally with entire unanimity, with the 
exception of the church in Boston. Mr. Wheel- 
right and Mrs. Hutchinson, the leaders of the 
Antinomian party, together with a few of their 
followers, after civil and ecclesiastical process, 
were excommunicated, banished, or at least 
forced from the colony, (Mr. Vane having pre- 
viously returned to England), not for their errors 
of opinion alone, but on account of the disorgan- 
izing and destructive influence which the public 
maintenance of those errors exerted upon the 
peace and welfare of the community. Many of 
the ignorant and enthusiastic people, who had 



LIFE OF THOMAS S II E 1' A U D . SOi) 

been misled by the appearance of eminent piety in 
their new guides, — when those who had seduced 
them into error were gone, — returned penitently 
to the churches and the ministry which they 
had abandoned, and were received by their 
brethren into renewed fellowship, with joy and 
gratitude to God for his healing mercy ; and 
Mr. Wheelwright himself, after seven years of 
banishment, publicly confessed and renounced 
his errors, and w:is restored to his former stand- 
ing in church and state which he enjoyed for 
nearly forty years, with the reputation of a 
humble and worthy minister of Christ. Thus 
terminated the first great temptation of our fa- 
thers in the wilderness ; an event, which 
through the ignorance of some, and the perverse 
spirit of others, has been frequently spoken of to 
the reproach, not of the guilty tempters, but of 
those wise and holy men, who by the word of 
God and prayer affectually resisted the evil, and 
preserved the churches from one of the worst 
and most destructive forms of errors. \ " And so 
the Lord," says Shepard, " within one year, 
wrought a great change among us, having deliv- 
ered the country from war with the Indians and 
Familists, who rose and fell together.'^ 



18# 



210 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 



CHAPTER IX 



/: 



Mr. Shnpard'a vieilance willi respect to the manner of organizing 
churches. Gathering of the church at Dorcliosler. Letter to Rich- 
ard RIather. Interest in education. l.J^iimicncement of Harvard 
Culicge^^^^'hy lUe college was placed at rSewtown. Dilliciilty with 
Mr. Eaton. rJMarries Joaima tfooTcer. DeatFroT Mr. Harlakenden. 
V(Mr. Sliepard's work interrupted by sickness. Letter of Mr. Bulk- 
ley. How employed at this time. "" ' '■ 

While Mr. Shepard was thus watchful over the 
interests of his own flock, and zealous in the 
public vindication of the true doctrines of grace 
against the abominable errors of the Antinomi- 
ans, his advice and assistance were often sought 
in the organization of new churches in the colo- 
ny ; and in such cases, as a wise master builder, 
he was careful to see that the materials with 
which he built were of the right kind, and that 
they were securely placed upon the " foundation 
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ him- 
self being the chief corner-stone." ^^ne instance 
will serve as a specimen of his wisdom and 
fidelity in this respect. In the early part of this 
*' dismal year " of 1636, while a multitude of 
"chafTy hypocrites," and ignorant fanatics were 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD.Sll 

thronging into the country, and many of the 
churches were suffering under the deadly influ- 
ence of unsound members, he was called to at- 
tend a council for the organization of the second 
church in Dorchester, a great part, if not the 
whole of the first, having removed to Connecti- 
cut. 

The confession of faith, laid before the coun- 
cil by Mr. Mather, was found to be orthodox and 
satisfactory ; but when the persons, who were 
to constitute the church, came to relate their ex- 
perience, the elders refused to organize them, on 
the ground that they were " not meet, at pres- 
ent, to be the foundation of a church." Many 
of them built their hope upon " dreams and 
ravishes of the spirit by fits ;" or upon mere 
" external reformation ;" or "upon their duties 
and performances ;" wherein they discovered 
" three special errors : 1 , That they had not came 
to hate sin because it was filthy, but only left it 
because it was hurtful. 2, That they had never 
truly closed with Christ, or rather Christ with 
them, but had made use of him only to help the 
imperfection of their sanctification and duties, 
and had not made him their wisdom, righteous- 
ness, sanctification and redemption. 3, That 
they expected to believe by some power of their 



212 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

own, and not only and wholly from Christ.'"^ 
Mr. Shepard, whose experience of God's work 
of grace in the heart, was widely different from 
this, deeming- their evidences unscriptural and 
delusive, successfully opposed their organization 
into a church at that time. After his return 
home he wrote the following letter to Mr. Ma- 
ther, vindicating the course which he pursued 
at the council, and exhibiting his views respect- 
ing" the materials of which churches should be 
formed. It is a letter which is not without deep 
significance and interest at the present day, 
when the same errors of experience are common, 
and many churches have a far greater propor- 
tion of wood, hay, and stubble, than of gold and 
precious stones, in their composition.^ 

" Dear Brother, — 

As it was a sad thing to us to defer the 
uniting of your people together, so it would add 
affliction to my sorrow, if that yourself, (whom 
the Lord hath abundantly qualified and fitted for 
himself) and church, and people, should take to 
heart too much so solemn a demur and stop to 
the proceedings of those that were to be united 
to you. For what would this be but a privy 



♦ Winthrop's Journal, I. 1S4. 



LIFE OF THOMAS S II E P A K U . li 13 

quarreling with the wise providence of our God, 
who knows what pliysic is best to be givTn, and 
a grieving indeed for that good hand of God, in 
which we ought abundantly to rejoice : for I am 
confident of it that there is nothing in this cup 
so bitter, but by waiting awhile, yourself and 
people will find such sweetness in the bottom and 
conclusion of it, as shall make you and them a 
double amends. 

" David had a great desire to build the tem- 
ple, and he was content with the sad message 
of the prophet, he must not do it, his son should. 
It was quite honor enough unto him to provide 
stuff for it. L persuade myself the Lord intends 
to do more for you, and by you, in the place 
where the Lord hath set you, and that he will 
honor you with a more glorious service than 
that of Solomon ; to build him a temple, not of 
stones, but of saints elect and precious. Yet 
you know how many years Solomon waited be- 
fore the temple came to be erected. 

"All the stones of it were hewn and ham- 
mered out in Mount Lebanon, so that no axe or 
hammer was heard knocking while the temple 
was a building. 1 Kings 6:7. O let not a lit- 
tle waiting be sad or grievous to you, while 
your people are preparing themselves, or the 
Lord, rather, is preparing them, to be built on 



214 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

the foundation-stone ; that when you meet again 
together, there may not be any hammer heard, 
any doubt made, any pause occasioned, by any 
neglect of them in not seeking to gather their 
evidences better, both to quiet their own souls 
before the Lord, and to satisfy the consciences 
of other men. 

"As for myself, I was very loth to speak, but 
I thought, — and I have found it since, — that I 
should neither be accounted faithful to the 
church that sent me, neither should I manifest 
the tenderness of the good of your people, if I 
had not spoken what I did. I did confess, and 
do confess still, that although there were divers 
weaknesses in most, which I did and do willing- 
ly with a spirit of love, cover and pass by, as 
knowing what I am myself, yet there were three 
of them, chiefly, that I was not satisfied scarce 
in any measure with their profession of faith. 
Not but that I do believe upon your own trial of 
them, — which I persuade myself will not be 
slighty in laying a foundation, — but that they 
might have grace, yet because we came not here 
to find gracious hearts, but to see them too. 
'Tis not faith, but a visible faith, that must 
make a visible church, and be the foundation of 
visible communion ; which faith I say, be- 
cause my weakness could not see in some of 



LIFE OF THOMAS S H E 1' A R U . 21 /> 

ihem by their profession, I therefore spake 
what I did with respect to yourself and tender- 
ness also to them, that so they might either 
express themselves more fully for satisfaction of 
the churches, — which T did chiefly desire, — 
or if there were not time for this, that they might 
defer till another time, which you see was the 
general vote of all the churches. Which course, 
I have thought, and do think, hath this three- 
fold good wrapt up in it. 

" 1. That if your people, then doubtful to us, 
be indeed sincere, this might make them more 
humble, and make them search themselves more 
narrowly, and make them cast away all their 
blurred evidences, and get fairer and show bet- 
ter, and so find more peace, and keep more close 
to God than ever before. And on the contrary, 
if they be unsound, that this might be a means 
to discover them ; for either you will find them 
proud, passionate, and discontented at this, — 
which I believe is far from all of them, — or else 
you will see that this doth little good, and works 
little upon them ; which unto my own self 
would be a shrewd evidence of little or no grace, 
if the majesty and presence of God in so many 
churches so ready to receive you, should work 
no more awe nor sad laying to heart such a sen- 
tence as this hath been. For believe it, brother. 



216 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

we have been generally mistaken in most men 
and in great professors ; these times have late- 
ly shown, and this place hath discovered more 
false hearts than ever we saw before. And it 
will be your comfort to be very wary and very 
sharp in looking to the hearts and spirits of 
those you sign yourself unto, especially at first, 
lest you meet with those sad breaches which 
other churches have had, and all by want of 
care and skill to pick forth fit stones for so glori- 
ous a foundation as posterity to come may build 
upon and bless the Lord. 

" 2. By this means others will not be too for- 
ward to set upon this work, who, after sad 
trial, will be found utterly unfit for it. For it is 
not a work for all professors, nor for all godly 
men, to lay a foundation for a church, for many 
godly men may have some odd distempers that 
may make for the ruin of the building, therefore 
not fit for a foundation ; many godly men are 
weak, and simple, and unable to discern, and so 
may easily receive in such as may afterward 
ruin them, hence unfit to lay a foundation. Not 
that I judge thus of your people. I dare not 
think so ; but if those that be fit, have been thus 
stopped in their way, how will this make others 
to tremble and fear in attempting this work, less 
able than yourselves. 



LIFE OF T II M AS S II E P A R D . 217 

" 3. By this means, I believe and hope, that 
the communion of saints will be set at a hjn^hcr 
price, when it is seen that it is not an honor 
that the Lord will always put on nor bestow and 
give away unto his own people. I do therefore 
entreat you in the Lord, that you would not 
hang down your head, but rejoice at this good 
providence of the Lord, which will abound so 
much to his praise and your future peace. 
Neither let it discourage you, nor any of your 
brethren, to go on in the work for after times ; 
but having looked over their own evidences a 
little better, and humbled their souls for this, 
and thirstinsf the more after the Lord in his 
temple and ordinances, while with David they 
are deprived for a season of them ; that hereaf- 
ter you would come forth again, (it may be 
some of your virgins have been sleeping, and 
this may awaken them,) with your lamps 
trimmed, your lamps burning, your wedding 
garments on to meet the bridegroom. And if 
others will fall and sleep again, and not get their 
oil when they have had this warning, what do 
they do but discover themselves to be but foolish 
ones, who, though they knock hereafter, and 
cry Lord, Lord, it may be Christ nor his spouse 
will ever let them in. 

" Thus with my unfeigned love to all your 

VOL. IV. 19 



218 L 1 F E OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

brethren, whom I honor and tender in the Lord, 
with my poor prayers for you and them that in 
his time he would unite and bring you together, 
I rest, in great haste, 

Your brother in Christ, 

Thomas Shepard.^ 
From Newtown, (Cambridge) 
April 2, 1636." 

The answer of Mr. Mather to this faithful and 
truly apostolical letter, was worthy of a Puritan 
and a Christian. Instead of that self-sufficient 
and insubordinate spirit with which adverse de- 
cisions of councils are now frequently met by 
ministers and churches, Mr. Mather acknowl- 
edges the justness of the rebuke, — cordially 
submits to the authority of the council, — and 
expresses the deepest gratitude for the faithful- 
ness of his brethren. "As for what you spake 
that day," he says to Mr. Shepard, " I bless the 
Lord for it. I am so far from any hard thoughts 
towards you for the same, that you have by 
your free and faithful dealing that day, endeared 
yourself in my esteem more than ever, though 
you were always much honored and very dear 
to me. r And blessed be the name of the Lord 
for ever that put it into your hearts and mouths, 
all of you, to express yourselves as you did; for 

♦ Transcriljed from the Original MSS. in the Mass, Hist. Soc, by 
Rev N, Adams. 



LIFE OF THOMAS SIIEPARD. 219 

we now see our imworthiness of such a privi- 
lege as church communion is, and our unfitness 
for such a work as to enter into covenant with 

Himself, and to be accepted of his people 

If the counterfeiting Gibeonites were made hew- 
ers of wood and drawers of water, because they 
beguiled Israel to enter into league and covenant 
with them, when they were not the men that 
they seemed to be, it is as much as we are wor- 
thy of, that we may be hewers of wood, &c., for 
the churches here, because we attempted a 
league and covenant with the churches, and 
were not worthy of such a matter, nor meet to be 
covenanted with, though, — blessed be the Lord 
for it, — the heads of the congregation of the 
Lord's Israel here, were not so hasty and rash 
and credulous as they were in the days of Joshua. 

But you will say, Why, then, did you 

present yourself with the people before the Lord 
and the churches ? I will tell you the truth 
therein. They pressed me into it with much 
importunity, and so did others also, till I was 
ashamed to deny any longer, and laid it on me 
as a thing to which I was bound in conscience 
to assent to ; because if I yielded not to join, 
there would be, — said they, — no church at all in 
this place, and so a tribe, as it were, should per- 
ish out of Israel, and all through my default. 



220 LIFE OF TH03IAS SHE PARC. 

This kind of arguing, meeting that inward vain- 
glory, which I spake of before, was it that drew 
me forward, and prevailed against the conscious- 
ness of my own insufficiency, and against that 
timorousness that I sometimes found in my- 
self. ... It was pride that induced me to yield to 
their importunity, because I was desirous to have 
the praise and glory of being tractable and easy 
when entreated, and not to be noted for a stub- 
born and of a stiff spirit But why, then, 

did we bring stones so unhammered and un- 
hewn, — evidences of faith no fairer, &c.? In 
this, sir, you lay your finger upon our sore di- 
rectly ; neither can we here put in any other 
plea but guilty. The good Lord pardon, saith 
Hezekiah, every one that prepareth his heart to 
seek God, though he be not cleansed according 
to the purification of the sanctuary. Let us beg 
the help of your prayers for pardon herein, as 
Hezekiah did pardon for that people, and for 
more grace and care that if we ever come forth 
again for the same purpose, — which, for my 
part, I am much afraid to do, — we may not come 
to the dishonor of God, and grief of his saints, 
as at the last time we did. The Lord render 
you a rich and plentiful reward for your love and 
faithfulness." 

" To my dear friend and loving brotlicr, Mr. Thomas Shepard, at 
Newtown." 



LIFE OF THOMAS S H E P A R D . ![221 

Nothing can be more beautiful than the tem- 
per exhibited in these letters. We hardly know 
which to admire most, the Christian faithfulness 
and love of the pastor of Cambridge, or the 
meekness, humility, and thankfulness for re- 
proof, expressed by the pious minister of Dor- 
chester. " Let the righteous smite me;" says 
the Psalmist, " it shall be a kindness ; and le^ 
him reprove me ; it shall be an excellent oil 
which shall not break my head ; for yet my 
prayer also shall be in their calamities." Mr. 
Shepard, upon receiving Mr. Mather's reply, 
must have felt as Paul did when he witnessed 
the effect of his Epistle upon the Corinthians. 
" Though I make you sorry with a letter, I do 
not repent, though I did repent ; for I perceive 
that the same epistle hath made you sorry, 
though it were but for a season. . . . For ye 
were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye 
might receive damage by us in nothing." It is 
necessary only to add, that the people of Dor- 
chester, humbled and instructed by the opinion 
and faithful dealing of the council, " came forth 
again," in the month of August following, for 
the purpose of being organized into a church, 
not now " to the dishonor of God," or "to the 
grief of his saints," but with the approbation and 
sanction of their scrupulous brethren, and to the 
19=^ 



222 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEFARD. 

glory of the Redeemer. Mr. Mather was im- 
mediately ordained pastor of the church, and 
continued to preside over it with distinguished 
ability and success, until his death in 1669, in 
the seventy-third year of his age. 

But Mr. Shepard did not confine his care and 
labors to the churches. Among the institutions 
which he regarded as of preeminent importance, 
and which it was his earnest desire to see estab- 
lished in the colony, was a College to be, as he 
expresses it, " a nursery of knowledge in these 
deserts, and a supply for posterity." The great 
object of our Fathers in coming to this country, 
was not merely to escape fines and imprison- 
ment for non-conformity. They wished, it is true, 
for liberty to worship God according to the dictates 
of their own consciences, and they shrunk with 
a natural dread from the severe penalties of 
laws which they could not obey without sin ; 
but they had a nobler object than personal safety. 
They had conceived the idea of a Christian 
commonwealth, widely different in its form and 
principles, from any that then existed in the 
world, and this idea they began to realise as 
soon as they set foot upon these shores. Be- 
sides, therefore, the instruction which their chil- 
dren received at the fireside, and in the primary 
schools, they wanted an institution for the edu- 



LIFE 01- THOMAS S II E T A R I) . 223 

cation and training- of young men for the learned 
professions, and especially for the Christian min- 
istry, without which all their labor and sacrifices 
would be in vain. The important stations occu- 
pied by the able and learned founders of the 
church and state, would soon be vacant ; and 
even if a sufficient number of scholars could be 
procured from the parent country to fill them, 
yet those who were educated abroad, under an 
entirely different religious and political constitu- 
tion, could not be so thoroughly acquainted with 
the grounds of the civil and religious institutions, 
nor so much attached to the interests of the 
colony, as children who were born and educated 
here. As soon, therefore, says one of the early 
settlers, as " God had carried us safely to New 
England, and we had builded our houses, pro- 
vided necessaries for our own livelihood, reared 
convenient places for God's worship, and settled 
the civil government, one of the next things we 
longed for and looked after, was to advance 
learning and to perpetuate it to posterity ; dread- 
ing to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches, 
when our present ministers shall lie in the 
dust."=^ 

The plan of founding a College in Massachu- 



* New England's First Fruits, p. 12. 



224 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

setts, was brought before the General Court at 
its session at Newtown in September, 1636. It 
was then resolved that such an institution should 
be immediately commenced, and the sum of four 
hundred pounds was immediately appropriated 
as the beginning of a fund for its endowment; — 
a grant, which, inadequate as it confessedly was, 
yet considering the poverty of the colony, and the 
distractions produced by the " war with the In- 
dians and the Familists " which was then rag- 
ing, must be regarded as very liberal. 

The place selected for the college was New- 
town, which, in honor of the University where 
most of the early New England Fathers were 
educated, was thenceforth called Cambridge. For 
this choice of Newtown as the seat of the new 
University, there were two weighty reasons. 
One was, that through the influence of Mr. 
Shepard, under God, the congregation in this 
place had been preserved from the contagion of 
Antinomianism, which was then threatening the 
utter dissolution of the Boston church, and had 
begun to contaminate many other churches in 
the colony. The other is thus stated by John- 
son ; " To make the whole world understand 
that spiritual learning was the thing they chiefly 
desired, to sanctify the other, and make the 
whole lump holy, and that learning, being set 



LIFE OF THOMAS S 11 E P A R D . 225 

upon its right object, might not contend for error 
instead of truth, they chose this place, being 
then under the orthodox, and soul-flourishing 
ministry of Mr. Thomas Shepard ; of whom it 
may be said, without any wrong to others, the 
Lord by his ministry hath saved many a hun- 
dred souls. '"^ 

. The fund created by the grant of the General 
Court, was in 1639 enlarged by the donation of 
between seven and eight hundred pounds from 
John Harvard of Charlestown, — being half of his 
estate, — together with the whole of his library of 
two hundred and sixty volumes ; and in honor of 
him, as the chief benefactor, the institution was 
named Harvard College.! Nathaniel Eaton, 
brother of Theophilus Eaton of New Haven, was 
the first instructor in this infant seminary. He was 
intrusted with the management of the funds, as 
well as with the instruction of the students. The 
funds he squandered, and tovv'ards his pupils he 
manifested a disposition at once cruel and mean./ 
^JFor his abusive treatment of his usher, Mr. 
Briscoe^ and for some other sins as great, 
though not so notorious, he was dismissed from 
office, — fined twenty pounds for the satisfaction 
of Briscoe, — excommunicated by the church of 



* Wonder- Working Providence, IGI. 
t W'mlhiop'3 Journal, II. 81, 342. 



226 LIFE OF THOIMAS SHEPARD. 

Cambridge, — and finally compelled to leave the 
colony."^ , In this unhappy and disgraceful af- 
fair, Mr. Shepard, at first, innocently enough 
took the wrong side. Eaton professed, *' emi- 
nently, yet falsely and most deceitfully " to be a 
Christian ; and the good pastor of Cambridge, 
who knew no guile, was for a long time igno- 
rant of his great wickedness. On one occasion 
he beat poor Briscoe with " a walnut-tree plant, 
big enough to have killed a horse," until the 
whole neighborhood was alarmed by the cry of 
murder. Mr. Shepard rushing into the house 
at the outcry, and seeing Briscoe with his knife 
in his hand, took it for granted that the usher, 
and not the master, was to blame, and immedi- 
ately complained of him to the Governor, " for 
his insolent speeches, and for crying out mur- 
der, and drawing his knife ; demanding that he 
should be required to make a public acknowl- 
edgment of his violence. And when Eaton, 
after much labor with him in private, had re- 
luctantly confessed his guilt, Mr. Shepard and 
several of the elders, " came into court, and de- 
clared how, the evening before, they had taken 
pains with him to convince him of his faults," — 
that he had " freely and fully acknowledged 
his sin," — that they " hoped he had truly re- 

* Winthrop's Journal, I. 308. 



L 1 F E O F THOMAS S II E 1' A R D . 227 

pented," — and therefore " desired of the Court 
that he might be pardoned and continued in his 
employment ; alleging such further reasons as 
they thought fit.'"^ But Mr. Shepard was not 
long deceived in respect to Eaton's real charac- 
ter. He soon saw things in their true light, and 
cordially assented to the sentence by which the 
hypocrite was expelled from office, and cut off 
from the fellowship of the church ; mourning 
deeply over this great scandal to the cause of 
truth, and especially lamenting his own " igno- 
rance, and want of w^isdom, and watchfulness " 
in relation to the guilty man. v.Eaton fled 
from the colony ; and afterwards sent for his 
wife and children to come to him in Virgin- 
ia. Her friends in Cambridge urged her to 
delay the voyage for awhile, but she resolved 
to go, and the vessel in which she sailed was 
never heard of afterwards. t This disaster 
deeply affected Mr. Shepard; and though he 
was in no sense chargeable with the sad fate 
of this unhappy family, he called himself to 
account as if he were in some measure guilty 
of their blood. In his diary, under date of 
June 3, 1640, he says ; ^i When tidings came 
to me of the casting away of Mrs. Eaton I did 



* Winthrop's Journal, I. 311. 
t Winthrop's Journal, II. 22. 



228 LIFE OF THOMAS S H E P A R D . 

learn this lesson ; whenever any affliction came, 
not to rub up my former., old., true humiliation., 
but to be more humbled ; for I saw I was very 
apt to do the first. And I blessed God for the 
light of this truth." 
/" Mr. Shepard's first wife, who had shared 
with him the dangers of persecution in Eng- 
land, and the hardships of his flight to the asy- 
lum which had been providentially prepared for 
him in this country , died, as has been already 
stated, in February, 1636 ;■ and his son Thomas, 
then about ten months old, was placed under the 
care of a Mrs. Hopkins, who was probably one 
of the company that came over with them. For 
a season, therefore, while he was engaged in 
these public labors, amidst the distracting con- 
troversies, and other evils which, as a leading 
man in the colony he could not avoid, his 
own house was left unto him desolate ; and he 
was obliged to encounter afflictions abroad, with- 
out those comforts of home to which he had 
been accustomed in his former trials, and which 
his usually feeble health rendered necessary. 

It was natural, therefore, that he should think 
of another connection, and endeavor to rekindle 
the fire upon his own hearth. " A prudent wife, 
the sacred writer tells us, " is from the Lord;" and 
Mr.. Shephard soon obtained this great blessing. 



LIFE OF THOMAS SIIEPARD. 229 

^(In the month of October, 1637, he married 
Jpanna, the eldest daughter of his early friend 
and counselor, Mr. Hooker, with whom he 
had been long- acquainted, and whose extraor- 
dinary fitness for the station she was required to 
fill, he fully understood. This connection proved 
to be eminently suitable ; and all the expecta- 
tions which he and his friends had formed 
respecting her as a wife, as a mother, and as a 
helper in the great work which was at that time 
tasking and exhausting his energies, were much 
more than realized. 

The year after his marriage, he suffered a 
great loss in the death of his early and devoted 
friend, jRoger Harlakenden. The family of 
Harlakenden, as the reader will remember, had 
been the protectors and supporters of Mr. Shep- 
ard, when, in England, he was hunted from 
place to place by the pursuivants, and obliged to 
hide himself from the wrath of the bishops. 
The two brothers, Richard and Roger, having 
been converted under his preaching, were ever 
among his warmest friends ; and Roger, unwill- 
ing to be separated from the powerful and 
" soul-flourishing ministry" which had been so 
highly blessed to his soul, came and settled with 
his pastor in Cambridge. Mr. Shepard calls 
him a " most dear friend, and precious servant 

VOL. IV. 20 



230 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

of Jesus Christ." He was of such reputation 
in the colony that he was three times chosen 
assistant ; and his influence must have been of 
the g^reatest service to the church and its minis- 
ter. He died of small pox, November 17, 1638, 
being only twenty-seven years of age. " He 
was," says Winthro^j^ " a very godly man, and of 
good use both in the Commonwealth and in the 
church.y He was buried v/ith military honors, 
because he was lieutenant colonel. ■ He left be- 
hind a virtuous gentlewoman and two daughters. 
He died in great peace, and left a sweet memo- 
rial behind him of his piety and virtue." ^ 

Soon after the death of Mr. Harlakenden, Mr. 
Shepard himself was brought to the borders of 
the grave by a disease, which was probably 
brought on by over exertion, hardship, and grief. 
The manner in which he himself speaks of it 
leads us to this conclusion. " I fell sick," he 
says, " after Mr. Harlakenden 's death, my most 
dear friend, and most precious servant of Jesus 
Christ ; and when I was very low, and my 
blood much corrupted, the Lord revived me ; 
and after that took pleasure in me, to bless my 
labors, so that I was not altogether useless nor 
fruitless." That his sickness, whatever mii^ht 



* WinUirop'^ Jdiirnal. I, 278. 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 231 

have been its nature, was so severe as to bring 
death very near, apparently, not only to his own 
mind, but also to awaken painful apprehensions 
in the public mind respecting- his danger is evi- 
dent from a letter addressed to him by Mr. 
Bulkley, one of the moderators of the late Synod, 
soon after his recovery. 

Deak Sir : 

I hear the Lord hath so far strength- 
ened j'-ou, as that you were the last Lord's day 
at the Assembly. The Lord go on with the 
work of his goodness towards you. Being that 
now the Lord hath enabled you thus far, I de- 
sire a word or two from you, what you judge 
concerning the Teachers in a congregation, 
whether the administration of discipline and 
sacraments do equally belong unto them with 
the Pastor ; and whether he o tight therein 
equally to interest himself. I would also desire 
you to add a word more concerning this, — 
viz ; what you mean by the execution of disci- 
pline, when you distinguish it from the poioer. 
We have had speech sometimes concerning the 
church's power in matters of discipline, wherein 
you seemed to put the power itself into the 
hands of the church, but to reserve the execution 
to the Eldership, I would see what you com- 



232 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

prehend under the word execution. I would 
gladly hear how the common affairs of the 
church stand with you. I am here shut up, and 
do neither see nor hear. Write me what you 
know. Let me also know how Mr. Phillips 
doth incline, whether towards you, or other- 
wise ; and what way Mr. Rogers is like to turn, 
whether to stay in these parts, or to go unto 
Connecticut. I wrote to you not long ago ad- 
vising you to consider quid valent humeri; I 
know not whether you answered that letter. 
The Lord in mercy bless all your labors to his 
church's good. Remember my love to Mrs. 
Shepard, with Mrs. Harlakenden. 
Grace be with you all. 

Yours in Christ Jesus. 
P. BULKLEY. ^ 
Feb. 12, 1638. 

From this letter, it is evident, not only that 
Mr. Shepard's illness had been such as to inter- 
rupt his public labors, and excite some degree of 
alarm among his friends ; but also, incidentally, 
that his labors in the pulpit, and with the pen, 
were so great as perhaps to retard his complete 
recovery, and to render necessary some fraternal 



♦ Hutchinson's MSS. Papers, Vol. I., in Mass, Hist. Soc. Library. 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 233 

advice that he should spare himself a little. 
" I wrote you not long ago, — advising you to 
consider, qicid valent humeri,''^ — what your 
shoulders are able to bear ; a caution which he 
seems not to have laid to heart, for he continued 
to labor beyond his strength, and to take upon 
his shoulders a weight which they were not able 
to sustain. His laborious preparation for preach- 
ing, and his public labors for the good of the 
churches and the prosperity of the common- 
wealth, were probably the burden which Mr. 
Bulkley feared he would not be able to bear. 

As to those points of ecclesiastical order upon 
which Mr. Bulkley asks for information, no 
reply from Mr. Shepard has been preserved ; 
but his opinions in relation to them are fully ex- 
pressed in his published works. What they 
were will be seen when we come to speak of the 
services which Mr. Shepard rendered in settling 
the principles upon which the early congrega- 
tional churches were organized. 



20* 



234 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEFARD. 



CHAPTER X. 

Mr. Shepard on the point of removing to Matabeseck. Cause of his 
embarrassments. Letter from Mr. Hooker. Stale of Mr. Shep- 
ard's mind during this season. Extracts from his Diary. Diffi- 
culty removed. Birth of children. Samuel Shepard. Letters 
from Mr. Hooker. 

In the year 1640, Mr. Shepard, in addition to 
his other afflictions, was plunged into ahuost 
inextricable embarrassment with respect to his 
affairs, which had well nigh compelled him 
to remove to some other plantation, or to 
return to England. This embarrassment was 
occasioned by the depressed state of the col- 
onists with respect to the means of meeting 
their pecuniary obligations. The influx of 
settlers had ceased in consequence of the 
change of affairs in England ; and this sud- 
den check to immigration had an immediate 
effect upon the price of cattle, &c. While 
the inhabitants continued to multiply, a far- 
mer, who could spare but one cow in a year 
out of his stock, used to clothe his family with 
the price of it at the expense of the new comers ; 



LIFE OF THOMAS S II E P A R D . 235 

when this failed, they were put to great difficul- 
ties. "^^ Some of the colonists, in the prospect of 
a thorough reformation in England, began to 
think of returning to their native land. " Others, 
despairing of any more supply from thence, and 
yet not knowing how to live there, if they should 
return, bent their minds wholly to removal to 
(the^south parts, supposing they should find better 
means of subsistence there, and for this end put 
off their estates here at very low rates. These 
things, together with the scarcity of money, 
caused a sudden and very great abatement of the 
prices of all our commodities. Corn was sold ordi- 
narily at three shillings the bushel, a good cow at 
seven or eight pounds, and some at five, and other 
things answerable, whereby it came to pass that 
men could not pay their debts, for no money nor 
beaver were to be had ; and he who last year, 
or but three months before, was worth £1,000, 
could not now, if he should sell his whole es- 
tate, raise £200, whereby God " taught us the 
vanity of all outward things !" . . . " The scarcity 
of money made a great change in all commerce. 
Merchants would sell no wares but for ready 
money. Men could not pay their debts, though 
they had enough. Prices of cattle fell soon to 



* Hutchinson, Hist. Mass., I, 92. 



236 LIFE OF THOI^IAS SHEPARD.' 

the one-half and less, yest. to a third, and after, to 
one fourth part." ^ For the relief of the people, 
at this season of unexpected trial, the court, in 
October, 1640, ordered that, for all new debts, 
corn should be a legal tender ; Indian corn to be 
received at 45., summer wheat at 6s., rye and 
barley at 5s., and pease at 6s. per bushel ; and 
that upon all executions for old debts, the officer 
should take land, houses, corn, cattle, fish, or 
other commodities, and deliver the same in full 
satisfaction to the creditor at such prices as 
should be fixed by three intelligent and indiffer- 
ent men, to be chosen, one by the creditor, 
another by the debtor, and the third by the mar- 
shal ; the creditor being at liberty to make 
choice of any goods in the possession of the 
debtor, and if there were not sufficient goods to 
discharge the debt, then he might take house or 
land, t 

What the exact amount of Mr. Shepard's 
nominal salary was at this time, is not known ; 
but from the report of a committee, appointed a 
few years later to make inquiries in relation to 
the maintenance of ministers in the vicinity of 
Cambridge, a tolerably accurate idea may be 



* Winthrop's Journal II. 21, 18. 

t Wiiiihrop'3 Journal, II, 7. Fell'.s Ma3sachuseUs' Currency, 
p. 28. 



LIFE OF THOMAS SIIEPARD. ii37 

formed as to his means of subsistence. Mr. 
Hobart of Ilingham, received ninety pounds a 
year, one-third in wheat, one-third in corn, and 
the remainder in peas. Mr. Mather of Dor- 
chester, received one hundred pounds, payable 
in corn, and in work as he might have occasion 
for it. Mr. Eliot and Mr. Danforth of Rox- 
bury, sixty pounds each, in corn. Mr. Allen 
of Dedham, sixty pounds, in corn and work. 
Mr. Flint and Mr. Thompson, of Braintree, 
fifty-five pounds, each, in corn. Mr. Wilson 
of Medfield, sixty pounds, in corn. Mr. Shep- 
ard's salary was not, probably, greater than that 
of his friends in the neighboring towns, nor paid 
in a different manner. And when the scarcity 
of money became so great that the corn, in which 
his salary was paid, could neither be sold for 
cash, — nor exchanged at the merchant's for the 
various other necessaries of life, nor, (until the 
order of court above referred to,) made a legal 
tender for any debt, his situation, as well as 
that of all the ministers in the colony, who 
had no means of subsistence, except their 
stipulated amount of corn, must have been 
well nigh desperate. And if, in addition to the 
unavoidable pressure which had come upon him, 
any of the people, — before the price of corn as 
part of the circulating medium had been fixed 



238 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

by the court, — unfairly charged their minister the 
price which this commodity bore the year before, 
when it had suddenly fallen to one-third, or to 
one quarter of its former value, and, as Winthrop 
says, " would buy nothing," the evil would, of 
course, be greatly aggravated. Reduced to great 
extremity, with respect to his maintenance, Mr. 
■ Shepard contemplated a removal to Matabeseck, 
a settlement upon the Connecticut river, which 
was afterwards called Middletown. To this step 
he was urged by Mr. Hooker, his father-in-law, 
in the following interesting letter, never before 
published, which strongly insinuates that there 
had been some injustice and unfair dealing as 
well as poverty, among the people, with respect 
to the payment of their debts^ 

" Dear Son, 

Since the first intimation I had 
from my cousin Samuel, when you was here 
with us, touching the number and nature of 
your debts, I conceived and concluded the con- 
sequences to be marvelous desperate in the view 
of reason, in truth, unavoidable, and yet insup- 
portable, such as were likely to ruinate the whole. 
For why should any send commodities, much less 
come themselves to the place, when there is no 
justice amongst men to pay for what they take, 



LIFE OF THOMAS SIIEPARD. 239 

or the place is so forlorn and helpless, that men 
cannot support themselves in a way of justice, 
and therefore there is neither sending nor 
coming, unless they will make themselves and 
substance a prey. And hence to weary a 
man's self to wrestle out an inconvenience, 
when it is beyond all possibilities which are 
laid before a man in a rational course, is alto- 
gether bootless and fruitless, and is to increase a 
man's misery, not to ease it. Such be the mazes 
of mischievous hazards, that our sinful depart- 
ures from the right and righteous ways of God 
bring upon us, that, as birds taken in an evil 
net, the more they stir, the faster they are tied. 
If there was any sufficiency to make satisfaction 
in time, then respite might send and procure 
relief; but, when that is wanting, delay is to 
make many deaths of one, and to make them all 
more deadly. 

" The first and safest way for peace and com- 
fort, is to quit a man's hand of the sin, and so 
of the staying of the plague. Happy is he that 
hath none of the guilt in the commission of evils, 
sticking to him. But he that is faulty, it will be 
his happiness to recover himself by repentance, 
both sudden and seasonably serious ; and when 
that is done in such hopeless occasions, it is 
good to sit down under the wisdom of some 



240 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

word : That which is crooked nobody can make 
strait, and that which is wanting none can sup- 
ply ; Eccl. 1 : 15 ; and then seek a way in 
heaven for escape, when there is no way on 
earth that appears. You say that which I long 
since supposed ; the magistrates are at their 
wit's end, and I do not marvel at it. 

" But is there, then, nothing to be done, but 
to sink in our sorrows ? I confess here to reply, 
and that upon the sudden, is wholly beyond all 
my skill. Yet I must needs say something, if 
it be but to breathe out our thoughts, and so our 
sorrows. I say ours, because the evil will reach 
us really more than by bare sympathy. Taking 
my former ground for granted, that the weakness 
of the body is such that it is not able to bear the 
disease longer, but is like to grow worse and 
more unfit for cure, — which I suppose is the case 
in hand, — then I cannot see but of necessity this 
course must be taken : 

" 1. The debtors must freely and fully tender 
themselves and all they have into the hands, 
and be at the mercy and discretion of the credi- 
tors. And this must be done nakedly and 
really. It is too much that men have rashly and 
unjustly taken mere than they were able to re- 
pay and satisfy ; therefore they must not add 
falsehood and dissimulation when they come to 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 241 

pay, and so not only break their estate but their 
consciences finally. I am afraid there be old 
arrearages of this nature that lie yet in the 
dark. 

"2. The churches of the Commonwealth by 
joint consent and serious consideration, must 
make a privy search what have been the courses 
and sinful carriages which have brought in and 
increased this epidemical evil : pride and idle- 
ness, excess in apparel, building, diet, unsuita- 
ble to our beginnings or abilities ; what tolera- 
tion and connivance at extortion and oppression ; 
the tradesman willing the workman may take 
what he will for his work, that he may ask 
Avhat he will for his commodities. 

" 3. When they have humbled themselves un- 
feignedly before the Lord, then set up a real 
reformation, not out of politick respects, attending 
our own devices, but out of plainness, looking at 
the rule and following that, leave the rest to the 
Lord, who will ever go with those who go his 
own way. 

" Has premises ; I cannot see in reason but if 
you can sell, and the Lord afford you any com- 
fortable chapmen, but you should remove. For 
why should a man stay until the house fall on 
his head; or why continue his being there where 
in reason he shall destroy his substance ? For 

VOL. IV. 21 



242 LIFE OF THOMAS SIIEPARD. 

were men merchants, how can they hold it, 
when men either want monej^ to buy withal, or 
else want honesty and will not pay ? The more 
honest and able any persons or plantations be, 
their rates will increase, stocks grow low, and 
their increase little or nothing. And if remove, 
why not to Matabeseck ? For may be the gen- 
tlemen will not come, and that is most likely ; 
or if they do, they will not come all ; or if all, 
is it not probable but they may be entreated to 
abate one of the lots ; or if not abate, — if they 
take double lots, — they must bear double rates : 
and I see not but all plantations find this a main 
wound, they want men of abilities and parts to 
manage their affairs, and men of estate to bear 
charges. I will tell thee mine whole heart : con- 
sidering, as I conceive, your company, must 
break, and considering things ut supra, if you 
can sell, you should remove. 

" If I were in your places, I should let those 
that must and will, transplant themselves as they 
see fit, in a way of providence and prudence. 
I would reserve a special company, — but not 
many, — and I would remove hither. For I do 
verily think that either the gentlemen will not 
come, or if they do, they may be over entreated 
not to prejudice the Plantation by taking too 
much. And yet if I had but a convenient spare 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 243 

number, I do believe that would not prove preju- 
dical to any comfortable subsistence ; for able 
men are most fit to carry on occasions by their 
persons and estates with most success. These 
are all my thoughts; but they are inter nos ; 
use them as you see meet. I know to begin 
plantations is a hard work ; and I think I have 
seen as much difficulty, and come to such a 
business with as much disadvantage as almost 
men could do, and therefore I would not press 
men against their spirits. When persons do 
not choose a work, they will be ready to quarrel 
with the hardness of it. This only is to me 
beyond exception ; if you do remove, consider- 
ing the correspondence you have here of hearts 
and hands and helps, you shall never remove to 
any place with the like advantage. The pillar 
of fire and cloud go before you, and the Father 
of mercies be the God of all the changes that 

pass over your head." 

Totus tuus, 

T. H00KER.=»^ 

Nov. 2, 1640. 

Sint mutua preces in perpetuum.^^ 

In a subsequent letter, but without date, Mr. 

♦ Hutchinson's MSS. Papers, Vol. I. pp. 37—40. 



244 LIFE OF THOJIAS SHEFARD. 

Hooker refers again to the subject of Mr. Shep- 
ard's removal. " Touching your business at 
Matabeseck ; this is the compass of it : Mr. 
Fenwick is wiUing that you and your company 
should come thither upon these terms : Provided 
that you will reserve three double lots for three of 
the gentlemen, if they come ; that is, those three 
lots must carry a double proportion to that 
which your's take. If they take twenty acres of 
meadow, you must reserve forty for them ; if 
thirty, threescore for them. This is all we 
could obtain, because he stays one year longer 
in expectation of his company, at the least some 
of them ; and the like hath been done in Quin- 
ipiack, and hath been usual in such beginnings. 
Therefore we were silent in such a grant, for the 
while. Consider, and write back your thoughts. 
I am now weary with writing, and I suppose 
you will be with reading. The blessing of 
Him that dwelt in the bush, dwell with you for 
ever. Totus tuus, 

T. H00KER."=^ . 

The general state of Mr. Shepard's mind in 
view of this contemplated removal, and the 
painful circumstances which had brought him 



♦ Hutchinson's MSS. Papers, Vol. I. 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHE PARI). 245 

into these straits, may be inferred from some re- 
marks found in his Diary during this gloomy 
season. 

" February 14, 1640. When there was a 
church meeting to be resolved about our going 
away, viz : to Matabeseck, I looked on myself 
as poor, and as unable to resolve myself or to 
guide others or myself in any action, as a beast : 
and I saw myself in respect of Christ, as a brute 
is in respect of a man. And hence 1 left my- 
self on Christ's wisdom." 
/ It is a peculiar feature in all Mr. Shepard's 
references to his trials, that he never complains 
of outward difficulties, — never manifests any 
impatience under his losses and privations, — 
never blames those by whom he has been made 
to suffer, — but always condemns himself, and 
makes every untoward event in his life, a means 
of humbling and bringing him nearer to God. 
When he was silenced and driven forth as a fu- 
gitive by Bishop Laud, he thought it was "for 
his sins " that the Lord thus set his adversaries 
against him. - 

It is, indeed, impossible to discover by reading 
his Diary how great, or of what kind, his exter- 
nal trials were ; or even whether, at this time, 
there were any particularly trying circumstances 
in his condition ; and it was not until after long 
21* 



246 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

examination, and a very fortunate accident as it 
might be called, that the extract above, standing 
as it does without any explanation, was found to 
relate to embarrassments which threatened the 
very existence of his congregation in Cambridge. 
As illustrations of this feature, the following 
passages, taken almost at random from his Dia- 
ry during this season, may be given. • 

"December 1. A small thin^ troubled me. 
Hence I saw, that though ihc Lord had made 
me that night attain to that part of humiliation 
to see that I deserved nothing but misery, yet I 
fell short in this other part, viz : to submit to 
God in any crossing providence or command, 
but had a spirit soon touched and provoked. I 
saw also that the Lord let sin and Satan prevail 
there, that I might see my sin, and be more 
humbled by it, and so get strength against it." 

" January H. In the morning the Lord pre- 
sented to me the sad state of the church ; which 
put me upon a spirit of sorrow for my sins as 
one cause, and to resolve in season to go visit 
all families. But first to begin with myself and 
go to Christ, that he may begin to pour out his 
ointment on me, and then to my wife, and then 
to my family, and then to my brethren." 

" January 30. When I was in meditation, I 



LIFE OF THOMAS S H E T A II U . 247 

saw, when Christ was present^ all blessings were 
present ; as where any were without Christ 
present, there all sorrows were. Hence I saw 
how little of Christ was present in me. I saw I 
did not cease to be and live of myself, that 
Christ might be and live in me. I saw that 
Christ was to do, counsel, and direct, and that I 
should be wholly diffident of myself, and careful 
for this that he might be all to me. Hence I 
blessed Christ for showing me this, and mourned 
for the want of it." 
/ " February 1. When I was on my bed a 
Monday morning, the Lord let me see that I 
was nothing else but a mass of sin, and that all 
I did was very vile. Which when my heart 
was somewhat touched with, immediately the 
Lord revealed himself to me in his fullness 
of goodness, with much sweet affection. The 
Lord suddenly appeared, and let me see there 
was strength in him to succor me, wisdom to 
guide, mercy in him to quicken, Christ to satis- 
fy ; and so I saw all my good was there, as all 
evil was in myself." 

r ," February 9. I considered, when I could 
not bring Christ's will to mine, I was to bring 
mine to his. But then it must be thus : 1 . 
That if ever he gives my desire, it will be 



248 LIFE OF THOIMAS SHEPARD. 

infinite mercy, and so his will is good. 2. 
If he doth not, yet I deserved to be crossed, and 
to feel nothing but extremity." 

It is probable that at the church meeting, re- 
ferred to Feb. 14, the plan of removing to Mat- 
abeseck was thoroughly discussed, and in view 
of expected relief finally given up. For on the 
next day, February 15, we find the following 
entry in his Diary : " I was in prayer, and in 
the beginning of it, that promise came in, ' Seek 
me, and ye shall lice.'' Hereupon I saw, I had 
cause to seek him only, always ; because there 
was nothing else good, and because he was 
always good. And my heart made choice of 
God alone, and he was a sweet portion to me. 
And I began to see how well I could be without 
all other things with him ; and so learnt to live 
by faith." Again under date of March 2, 1641, 
he says, " I was cast down with the sight of our 
unworthiness in this church, deserving to be 
utterly wasted. But the Lord filled my heart 
with a spirit of prayer, not only to desire small 
things, but with an holy boldness to desire great 
things for God's people here, and for myself, 
viz : that I might live to see all breaches made 
up, and the glory of the vLord upon us : and 



LIFE OF THOMAS SIIEPARD. 249 

that I miirlit not die, but live, to show forth 
God's glory to this, and the children of the next 
generation. And so I rose from prayer with 
some confidence of an answer. 1. Because I 
saw Christ put it into my heart to ask ; 2. Be- 
cause he was true to hear all prayer." 

.Still later we find the following passage : 
/ *' October 29. I ivas much troubled about 
the poverty of the churches ; and I saw it was 
such a misery as I could not well discern the 
cause of, nor see any way out. Yet I saw we 
might find out the cause of any evil by the 
Lord's stroke. Now he struck us in outward 
blessings, and hence 'tis a sign there was our 
evil ; 1. In not acknowledging all we have 
from God, Hos. 2:8. 2. In not serving God 
in having them. 3. In making ourselves se- 
cure and hard-hearted : for lawful blessings 
are the secret idols, and do most hurt ; and 'tis 
then a sign our greatest hurt lies in having, and 
that the greatest good lies in God's taking them 
away from us. Whereupon I considering this, 
did secretly content myself that the Lord should 
take all from us, if it might be not in wrath, but 
in love, hereby to glorify himself the more, and 
to take away the fuel of our sin. I saw that if 
the Lord's people could be joyfully content to part 
with all to the Lord, prizing the gain of a little 



250 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEFARD. 

holiness more than enough to overbalance all 
their losses, that the Lord then would do us 

N good." 

^ One more extract from his meditations at this 
time will suffice. " July 23. As I was riding 
to the sermon, (lecture at Charlestown) my heart 
began to be much disquieted by seeing almost 
all men's souls and estates out of order, and 
many evils in men's hearts, lives, courses. 
Hereupon my heart began to withdraio itself 
from my brethren and others. But I had it se- 
cretly suggested to me, that Christ, when he 
saw evils in any, he sought to amend them, did 
not presently withdraw from them, nor was not 
perplexed and vexed only with them. And so I 
considered, if I had Christ's spirit in me, I 
should do so. And when I saw that the Lord 
had thus overcome my reasonings and visited 

• me, I blessed his name. I saw also, the night 
before this, that a child of God, in his solitari- 
ness, did wrestle against temptation, and so 
overcome his discontent, pride, and passion. 'ji 
{This event in the life of Mr. Shepard is ex- 
ceedingly interesting, not only as throwing light 
upon the trials and hardships to which our 
fathers in the ministry were subjected in the 
early days of New England, but especially as it 
brings out in a striking manner, a prominent and 



LIFE OF T H O I\I A S t> II E T A U D . !251 

beautiful feature of Mr. Shepard's piety. The 
purity of gold is tested by the crucible ; and this 
trial of a faith, "more precious than of gold that 
perisheth," developed a state of mind which, 
amidst the abounding hypocrisy and selfishness 
of the world, it is most delightful to contemplate. 
The manner in which he stayed himself upon 
God, and rebuked his discontent, and quietly 
continued his labors, under a burden of debt and 
of want, which, upon ordinary principles would 
have justified his removal, may serve as a model 
of ministerial patience and faithfulness for us at 
the present day. Ministers are doubtless sub- 
jected to many trials growing out of an insuffi- 
cient maintenance ; and the people may be more 
or less in fault for the embarrassments which 
distract their pastors. / But a hasty removal to 
Matabeseck is not the only cure ; nor will impa- 
tience, and discouragement, and complaint make 
the burden any lighter. If in such circum- 
stances a minister can, like Shepard, make the 
troubles of his outward estate the means of ren- 
dering him more humble, more prayerful, more 
submissive to the will of God, more desirous of 
glorifying Christ by a faithful service, he may 
live to see " all breaches made up, and the glory 
of the Lord upon him." He will not die of star- 



252 LIFE OF T II O I\I A S S H E I' A R D . 

vation, but " live to show forth God's glory to this, 
and the children of the next generation." More 
of the spirit of our fathers under the unavoida- 
ble pressure of providence, or the injustice and 
selfishness of the people, would in the end pro- 
duce a great change in the state of things ; would 
render the ministry more permanent and more 
respected, and the people more just and benevo- 
lent; — would give the lie to the charge that 
ministers labor merely for hire, and produce in 
ihe public mind a deep conviction that those 
who preach the gospel are really the servants of 
Him " who though rich, for our sakes became 
poor, that we through his poverty might be rich." 
The injustice of the people in withholding an 
/ample support when it is in their power to give 
it, is not hereby justified, but rebuked in the 
most effectual manner ; and perhaps nothing 
would be so likely to make the altar rich enough 
in external offerings to supply all the wants of 
those who minister at it, as that supreme regard 
to the interests of the church and the honor of 
Christ, of which Shepard gives us such a beau- 
tiful example. . 

Of Mr. Shepard's domestic aflfairs subsequent 
to the period referred to above, little is known, 
except what he has incidentally told us in his 



LIFE OF THOMAS S 11 E P A R D . 253 

invaluable but too brief account of himself. 
That he suffered many privations in conse- 
quence of the general poverty of the people, is 
probable ; and that amidst all his afflictions he 
labored with a zeal that consumed him, is cer- 
tain. In October 1641, he says, " I was very 
sad to see the outioard wants of the country ; 
and what would become of me and mine, if we 
should want clothes and go naked, and give 
away all to pay our debts. < Hereupon the Lord 
set me upon prizing his love, and the Lord made 
me content with it. And there I left myself, and 
begged this portion for myself, and for my child, 
and for the church." Again, " Oct. 2. On Satur- 
day night and this morning I saw, and was much 
affected with God's goodness unto me, the least 
of my father's house, to send the gospel to me. 
And I saw what a great blessing it would be to 
my child, if he may have it, that by my means 
it comes to him. And seeing the glory of this 
mercy, the Lord stirred up my heart to desire 
the blessing and presence of his ordinances in 
this place, and the continuance of his poor 
churches among us, looking on them as means 
to preserve and propagate the gospel. And my 
heart was for this end very desirous of mercy, 
outward and inward to sustain them, for his own 
VOL. IV. 22 



254 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

mercy's sake. And so I saw one strong motive 
to pray for them, even for posterity's sake, rather 
than in England, where so much sin and evil 
was abounding, and where children might be 
polluted. And I desired to honor the Lord bet- 
ter, that I might make him known to this gener- 
ation."/ Again, " Oct. 9. On Saturday morning, 
I was miLch affected for my life ; that I might 
live still to seek, that so I might see God, and 
make known God before my death." These ex- 
tracts from his Diary, a book of choice thoughts, 
worthy to be the daily companion of every min- 
ister, show that with respect to his appropriate 
work he was diligent, and notwithstanding his 
outward trials, contented. ■ 

During the nine years which elapsed between 
Mr. Shepard's second marriage and the death 
of his excellent wife, three children were born 
to him. The first, a boy, died " before he saw 
the sun, even in the very birth." The second, 
Samuel, was born October 18, 1641, at the time 
of Mr. Shepard's greatest domestic privation 
and difficulty. The third was also a son, named 
John, who, after a brief and sickly life of four 
months, •' departed on the Sabbath morning, a 
day of rest, to the bosom of rest." 

With respect to Samuel, we find the follow- 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 255 

ing reference in the Diary from wliich several 
passages have been already quoted. 

" October 18. On Monday morning my child 
was born. And when my wife was in travail, 
the Lord made me pray that she might be de- 
livered, and the child given in mercy, having 
had some sense of mercy the day before at the 
sacrament. But I began to think, What if it 
should not be so, and her pains be long, and the 
Lord remember my sin ? And I began to imag- 
ine, and trouble my heart with fear of the worst. 
And I understood at that time, that my child 
had been born, and my wife delivered in mercy 
already. Hereupon I saw the Lord's mercy, 
and my own folly to disquiet my heart with fear 
of what never shall be, and not rather to submit 
to the Lord's will; and come what can come, to 
be quiet there. When it was born, I was much 
affected, and my heart clave to the Lord who 
gave it. And thoughts came in that this was 
the beginning of more mercy for time to come. 
But I questioned, will the Lord provide for it ? 
And I saw that the Lord had made man, (es- 
pecially the church and their posterity) to great 
glory, to praise him, and hence would take care 
of him. . . . And I saw God had blessings for 
all my children ; and hence I turned them over 
to God." 



256 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEFARD. 

\ This son, whom Mr. Shepard and his friends 
were wont to call "Little Samuel," was brought 
up in the family of his grandfather Hooker at 
Hartford. We catch a glimpse of him by means 
of a delightful letter from Mr. Hooker to Mr. 
Shepard, without date, but written, as we should 
judge from a passage in it, just before the sec- 
ond meeting of the Synod which agreed upon 
the Platform, and probably after the death of 
Samuel's mother. 

" Dear Son : 

This being the first messenger which I 
understand comes into your coasts, I was glad 
to embrace the opportunity that I might acquaint 
you with God's dealings and our own condition 
here. ^The winter hath been exceeding mild 
and favorable above any that ever yet we had 
since we came into these ends of the earth. 
Thus the Lord is pleased to cross the conceits of 
the discontented, and accommodate the comforts 
of his servants beyond their expectations, and is 
able to do the like in other things, were we as 
fit tp^ receive them as he is willing to dispense 
them to us. J Myself, wife and family, enjoy our 
wonted health. My little Sam ; is very well, 
and exceedingly cheerful, and hath been so all this 



LIFE OF THOMAS SIIETARD. 257 

time, — grows a good scholar. The little crea- 
ture hath such a pleasing, winning disposition, 
that it makes me think of his mother almost 
every time I play with him. . . . 

Totus tuus 

T. Hooker."^ 
Saluta Salutanda 
Mr. Cotton, Mr. Dunster, &c." 

In another letter, apparently subsequent to 
the preceding, Mr. Hooker again speaks with a 
grandfather's tenderness of his " Little Sam :" 
" My little bed-fellow is well. I bless the Lord, 
and I fincl what' you related to Be true; the 
coTder the weather grows, the more quiet he lies. 
I shall hardly trust any body with him but mine 
own eye. Young ones are heavy headed, and 
if once they fall to sleep, they are hard to awake, 
and therefore unfit to help. My wife wishes 
you, by advice, to give something to little John, 
to prevent the jaundice.. Preventing physic is 
best. By this time I am weary with writing, 
and I suppose you may be so with reading. 
My eyes grow dim, and my hand much worse, 
though never good, and therefore my pen is 



* Hutchinson's MSS. Papers, vol. I. p. 90. 

22=^ 



25S LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

very unpleasant, yet I could not but communi- 
cate my thoughts with you according to my cus- 
tom. 

My wife and friends salute you. Sam re- 
members his duty : is very thankful for his things 
j^ou sent which are received. 

The blessing of heaven be with you.,) 
Totus tuus 

T. H00KER."=^ 

Sept. 17, 1646. 

/ It is only necessary to add, that Samuel Shep-, 
ard graduated at Harvard College in 165S, — 
\va's ordained the third minisier of Rowley in 
1662, and died April 7, 166S, at the early age 
of twenty-seven. " He was," says Mr. Mitchel, 
" a pious, holy, meditating, able, choice young 
man, — one of the first three. He was an excel- 
lent preacher, and most dearly beloved at Row- 
ley. The people would have plucked out their 
eyes to have saved his life." ^n 



* Hutchinson'a MSS. Tapers, vol. I. p. 100. 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 259 



CHAPTER XI. 

Mr. Shcpard'a plan for procuring funcla for the support of indigent 
students. Defence of tlie Nine Positions. Letter from Mr. Hook- 
er. Cliaracter of the Answer to Ball. Mr. Cotton's opinion of 
the work. Influence of Mr. Shepard in procuring the Cambridge 
Platform. Letter from Mr. Hooker. Character of the Platform. 
Commendation of Higginson and Oakes. Birth of son, and sudden 
death of Mrs. Shepard. 

In consequence of the general poverty and des- 
titution of the colony, referred to in the fore- 
going chapter, which had almost driven (Mr. 
Shepard from Cambridge, the college in whose^ 
prosperity he"felt the deepest interest, was in a 
languishing condition. Its funds were alto- 
gether insufficient to accomplish the purpose 
for which it was founded ; and such was the scar- 
city of money that many young men, who were 
desirous of obtaining a liberal education, were 
utterly unable to meet the expense of a resi- 
dence at Cambridge. ^At this crisis, Mr. Shep- 
ard, ever foremost in promoting the cause of 
religious education in the colony, conceived 
the 'plan of "procuring voluntary contribu- 
tions of corn, — money being out of the ques- 
tion,— from all_ parts of New England, for the 



260 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

maintenance of indigent students. When the 
Commissioners of the United Colonies of Massa- 
chusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New 
Haven, met atHartford in 1644, Mr. Shepard, 
being in Connecticut, laid his plan before that 
body, in the following noble Memorial : 

" To the honored Commissioners : 

" Those whom God hath called to attend the 
welfare of religious commonwealths, have been 
prompt to extend their care for the good of 
public schools, by means of which, the common- 
wealth may be furnished into knowing and 
understanding men in all callings, and the 
church, with an able minister in all places ; 
without which it is easy to see how both these 
estates may decline and degenerate into gross 
ignorance, and consequently into great and 
universal profaneness. ( May it please you, 
therefore, among other things of common con- 
cernment, and public benefit, to take into your 
consideration some way of comfortable mainte- 
nance for that school of the prophets that now is. 
For although hitherto God hath carried on the 
work by a special hand, and that not without 
some evident fruit and success, yet it is found 
by too sad experience, that, for want of some 
external supplies, many are discouraged from 



LIFE OF THOMAS S H E P A R D. 261 

sending their children, though pregnant and fit 
to take the least impression thereunto ; others 
that are sent, their parents enforced to take 
them away too soon to their own homes too oft, 
as not able to minister any comfortable and 
seasonable maintenance therein.j And those 
that are continued, not without much pressure, 
generally, to the feeble abilities of their parents, 
or other private friends, who bear the burden 
therein alone. If, therefore, it were recom- 
mended by you to the freedom of every family 
that is able and willing to give, throughout the 
plantations, to give but the fourth part of a 
bushel of corn, or something equivalent there- 
to ; — and to this end, if every minister were 
desired to stir up the hearts of the people, once 
in the fittest season of the year, to be freely 
enlarged therein ,^^^nd one or two faithful and 
fiTmen appointed in each town to receive and 
seasonably to send in wKat shall be thus given 
by them; — it is conceived, that, as no man 
would feel any grievance hereby, so it would be 
a blessed means of comfortable provision for the 
diet of divers such sUidents as may stand in 
need of some support, and be thought meet and 
worthy to be continued a fit season therein. 
And because it may seem an unmeet thing for 
this one to suck and draw away all that nourish- 



262 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

ment which the like schools may need in after 
times in other colonies, your wisdom may there- 
fore set down what limitation you please, or 
choose any other way you shall think more 
meet for this desired present supply. Your 
religious care hereof, as it cannot but be pleas- 
ing to him whose you are, and whom you now 
serve, so fruit hereof may hereafter abundantly 
satisfy you that your labor herein hath not been 
in vain.'"^ 

C This Memorial was received by the Com- 
missioners with much favor. (They cordially 
approved of Mr. Shepard's plan, and ordered 
that it should be recommended to the Deputies 
of the several General Courts, and to the Elders 
within the four colonies, to call for a voluntary 
contribution of one peck of corn, or twelve 
pence in money, or its equivalent in other com- 
modities, from every family ; a recommenda- 
tion which was adopted by the courts, and very 
generally responded to with great alacrity by 
the people, — suitable persons being appointed 
in all the towns to receive and disburse the 
donations, t/ 

Thus through the influence of Mr. Shepard, 
the first charitable provision for the support of 



* Hazard's Slate Papers, Vol. H, p. 17 
t Winthrop's Journal, H. 214. 



LIFE OF THOiAlAS SHEPARD. ii63 

indigent scholars in New England, was made 
f^t Cambridge ; and a noble example of zeal for 
the advancement of learning was exhibited, 
amidst poverty, hardship, and sufferings, that 
might easily have been pleaded in excuse for the 
indefinite postponement of this work. Massa- 
chusetts, in later times, has produced many 
liberal benefactors of Harvard and other col- 
leges ; but none deserving of higher lienor than 
Shepard, and those public-spirited men whom 
he inspired with a zeal in behalf of this institu- 
tion, which carried them to the extent of their 
power, " yea and beyond their power," in sup- 
plying its wants. 

>^ At this period of his life, Mr. Shepard was 
equally zealous and successful in the work of 
establishing and vindicating those principles, 
and that ecclesiastical polity which have ever 
distinguished Massachusetts as a religious 
commonwealth./ In connection with Cotton, 
Hooker, and Norton, he exerted a controling 
influence in organizing and settling the Congre- 
gational churches upon that foundation where 
they have stood until this dayj 

In the year 1636, a number of Puritan minis- 
ters in England, having been informed that the 
churches of New England had adopted a new 
mode of discipline, which many deemed errono- 



264 LIFE OF THOMAS S H E F A R D . 

ous, and which they themselves had formerly 
disliked, addressed to them a letter containing 
Nine Questions or Propositions, upon which their 
mature opinion was requested ; at the same 
time assuring them, that if their answer was 
satisfactory, they should receive the right hand 
of fellowship ; if otherwise, their error should 
be pointed out and condemned. 
/" The propositions which the New England 
ministers were understood to have adopted, and 
which they were now required to defend or to 
renounce, were the following, viz : That a 
prescribed form of prayer and set Liturgy, is 
unlawful ; that it is not lawful to join in prayer, 
or to receive the sacrament, where a prescribed 
Liturgy is used ; that the children of godly and 
approved Christians are not to be baptized until 
their parents become regular members of some 
particular congregation ; that the parents them- 
selves, though of approved piety, are not to be 
received to the Lord's supper until they are 
admitted as members ; that the power of excom- 
munication is so in the body of the church that 
what the major part shall decide, must be done, 
though the parties and the rest of the assembly 
are of another mind ; that none are to be ad- 
mitted as members unless they promise not to 
depart or to remove without the consent of the 



L I P E OF THOMAS S H E P A R D . 265 

congregation ; that a minister is so the minister 
of a particular congregation, that if they dislike 
him unjustly, or leave him, he ceases to be 
their minister ; — that one minister cannot per- 
form any ministerial act in another congrega- 
tion ; — that members of one congregation may 
not communicate in another. J 

This letter was immediately answered in a 
pamphlet containing the views of the New 
England ministers upon these points, which 
were the same, in substance, as those main- 
tained in Cotton's " Way of the Congregational 
Churches," and afterwards more fully unfolded 
and vindicated in " The Power of the Keys." 
To this answer, a reply was, at the request of 
the English brethren, drawn up by Mr. John 
Ball, minister of Whitmore, near Newcastle, in 
Staffordshire, entitled " A Trial of the New 
Church-Way in New England and in Old." 
The first copy of this reply, sent in 1640, 
having miscarried, another was prepared, 
which, after much delay, finally came to hand 
about the year 1644. The manifold errors 
respecting the ecclesiastical polity of our Fa- 
thers, and the gross misrepresentations of the 
principles and practices of these churches, 
which this book contained, induced Mr, Shep- 
ard, with the cooperation of Mr, Allen of Ded- 
voL. IV. 23 



266 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

ham, to attempt a thorough discussion of these 
points, which he did in an elaborate Treatise 
entitled, " A Defence of the Answer made unto 
the Nine Questions or Positions sent from New 
England, against the Reply thereto by that 
reverend servant of Christ, Mr. John Ball, 
entitled ' A Trial of the New Church-Way in 
New England and in Old;' wherein, besides a 
more fall opening of sundry particulars concern- 
ing Liturgies, Power of the Keys, Matter of the 
Visible Church, &c., is more largely handled 
that controversy concerning the Catholic Church ; 
tending to clear up the old way of Christ in 
New Enfjland churches." The first edition of 
this book was printed at London in 1648. In a 
subsequent edition, printed in 1653, this long 
and cumbrous title was abridged and the name 
of Mr. Allen omitted, while the Preface is sub- 
scribed with both names as in the first edition. "^^ 
The book was, without doubt, substantially the 
work of Mr. Shepard. 

/"In this Treatise Mr. Shepard explains and 
defends the views of our New England Fathers 
respecting the worship and discipline of the 
church, with extraordinary learning, ability, and 
acuteness. Mr. Hooker, in a letter to Mr. 



* Hanbury's Hi.stnrical Memorials, III. :]:}. 



LIFE OF THOMAS S H E I A R U . 267 

Shepard, written about the time that the Ques- 
tions made their appearance, had expressed the 
fear " that the first and second Questions touch- 
ing a stated form of prayer," would '* prove very- 
hard to make any handsome work upon ;" and 
that " a troublesome answer might be returned 
to all the arguments." The answer to the Nine 
Positions had admitted that a form of prayer is 
not in itself unlawful ; and Mr. Hooker feared 
that in defending this admission, Mr. Shepard 
would expose himself and his brethren to the 
charge of inconsistency. y 

Notwithstanding Mr. Hooker's fears, and 
forebodings, Mr. Shepard succeeded in making 
very " handsome work " upon all the points 
respecting which the author of the letter required 
satisfaction ; and gave an Answer to Mr. Ball's 
Reply, which so far from involving the Congre- 
gationalists in difficulty, was the means of 
silencing the objections which had been made 
against them, and of satisfying the English 
brethren that their position was impregnable. 
He shows clearly that what Mr. Ball had stig- 
matized as " A New Church-Way," was in 
truth no other than the " Old Church-Way of 
godly reformers," that " the mending of some 
crooks in an old way," does not make a new 
road, — and that in the constitution of the New 



269 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

England churches, both with respect to worship 
and discipline, the true Scriptural model had 
been constantly kept in view. 

On the subject of a Liturgy, there was a 
slight shade of difference between Mr. Shepard 
and his father-in-law. Mr. Hooker thought it 
would be better to maintain that " all set forms 
are unlawful, either in public or in private," 
than to defend Mr. Cotton's position. In a 
letter to Mr. Shepard, he says, "Mr. Ball, 
I suppose, hath a right and true cause to 
defend in the former part of his book, and 
handles it well ; and though I think it may re- 
ceive another return, because there is some 
room for a reply, yet if he hit it in that, I sup- 
pose the next rejoin will silence. Only I con- 
fess, I had rather defend the cause upon this 
supposal ; that all set forms are unlawful either 
in public or in private than to retire to that de- 
fence of Mr. Cotton's : That it is lawful to use 
a form in private, or occasionally in public, but 
not ordinarily ; for to my small conceit, he doth 
in such a distinction tradere causam^ and that 
fully. For if I may use a form in private, then 
a form hath not the essence of an image in it, 
against the second commandment, for that is not 
to be used at all ; then a stated form is not op- 
posite to the pure worship in spirit and truth, 



LIFE OF THOMAS SUEPARD. 269 

for then it should not be used in private : then 
to bring in a book for the performance of tliis 
duty, is not to bring in an altar, for that would be 
unlawful in private. Again, if lawful to use a 
printed prayer in private, then hath it the essen- 
tials of true prayer ; then it is not of the same na- 
ture with preaching a printed sermon, or reading 
an homily, because neither of these have the es- 
sentials of preaching : hence a man may exercise 
the gift of prayer, and the graces of the spirit in 
so praying, because it is a lawful prayer."^ . . . 
f Mr. Shepard, without discussing the question 
whether all forms of prayer, under all circum- 
stances, are unlawful, declares that this was not 
the question upon which the Congregationalists 
separated from the Church of England : It was 
the particular Liturgy of that Church, — which 
" was the same that was in popery for substance," 
having been " gathered out of the Mass-book," 
which required many uliscriptural ceremonies 
and idolatrous gestures, — which was never com- 
manded by God, but imposed upon the church 
by the " insolent tyranny of the usurping pre- 
lates," — which had been " greatly abused unto 
idolatry and superstition," — which made every 
part of its complex service a matter of life and 

* Hutchinson's MSS. Papers, vol. I. 

23^ 



270 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

death, — which was upheld and enforced by the 
whole physical power of the state, — it was this 
LitUrgy that they renounced and condemned as 
a corrupt service-book, which had been too long 
tolerated in the English churches. Mr. Ball 
had made a false issue in discussing the lawful- 
ness of forms of prayer in general, while the 
whole controversy turned upon the lawfulness 
of submitting to this particular Liturgy. " All 
of us could not concur," says Mr. Shepard, " to 
condemn all set forms as unlawful ; yet we 
could in this, namely, that though some set 
forms may be lawful, yet it will not follow that 
this of the English Liturgy is." It became 
necessary, therefore, to " distinguish of forms, 
and so touch the true Helena of this controversy ; 
and therefore if any shall observe Mr. Ball's 
large defence of set forms in general, they shall 
find those wings spread forth in a ver}'- great 
breadth to give some shelter and warmth to 
that particular Liturgy then languishing, and 
hastening, through age and feebleness, towards 
its last end."^ 

With respect to the discipline of the New 
England churches, Mr. Shepard clearly distin- 
guishes Congregationalism frdm Brownism, (or 
Independency,) on the one hand, and from Presby- 

♦ Defence of Nine Positions, ch. II. passim. 



LIFE OF THOMAS S II E P A R D . 27 1 

terianism, on the other. Brownism, he shows, 
places the entire government of the church in 
the hands of the people, and drowns the voice 
of the pastors in a major vote of the brethren, who 
were content, as Ward of Ipswich wittily ob- 
served ; that the- elders should " sit in the sad- 
dle, if they might hold the bridle." Pres- 
byterianism,on the contrary, commits the whole 
power of discipline to the presbytery of each 
church, or to the common presbytery of 
many churches combined together by mutual 
consent, thus swallowing up the interests of the 
people of every congregation in the majority of 
the presbyteries. While in the organization of 
the Congregational churches, both extremes are 
here shown to be avoided by a wise and judi- 
cious distribution of power into different hands, — 
which neither subjects the people to the arbitrary 
decision of the pastors, nor merges the authority 
of the pastors in the will of the majority.^ 

Mr. Shepard here distinguishes between the 
povjtr and \hQ execution of discipline, — the point 
upon which Mr. Buckley requested information 
in the letter which has been already referred to. 
It belongs to the brethren or body of the church, 
to censure an offending brother by admonition, 



* Defence of Nine Positions, ch. XIV. 



272 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

suspension, or excommunication, as his oflence 
may require ; but in handling offences before 
the church it is the prerogative of the pastor to 
declare the counsel and will of God respecting 
the matter, and to pronounce sentence by the 
authority of Christ with the consent of the 
brethren. '-^^ " We distinguish," says Mr. Shep- 
ard, " between power and authority. There is 
a power, right, or privilege, which is not au- 
thority properly so called. The first is in the 
whole church, by which they have right to 
choose officers, receive members, &c. Author- 
ity, properly so called, we ascribe only to the 
officers, under Christ, to rule and govern, w^hom 
the church must obey."t 

^ It was falsely imputed to the Congregation- 
alists, he says, that they " set up a popular gov- 
ernment, making the elders of the church no 
more but moderators, and that ministers received 
their power from the people, were their servants, 
and administered in their name, when we oft 
profess the contrary, that all authority, properly 
so called, is in the hands of the elders, and the 
liberty of the people is to be carried in a way of 
subjection and obedience to them in the Lord." Xj 



* Cambridge Platform, ch. X. 

t Defence of Nine Positions, p. 129. 

I Preface to Defence of Nine Positions, p. 13. 



LIFE OF THOMAS S H E P A U D . 273 

The office of the pastor, as he describes it in 
another place, " is the immediate institution of 
Christ ; the gifts and the power belonging tiicreto 
are from Christ immediately, and therefore he 
ministers in his name, and must give account to 
him ; and yet his outward call to this office, 
whereby he hath authority to administer the 
holy things of Christ to the church, is from 
Christ by his church ; and this makes him no 
more the servant of the church than a captain, — 
by leave of the general, — chosen by the band of 
soldiers, is the servant of his band." " If," he 
goes on to say, " the power, privilege, and lib- 
erty of the people be rightly distinguished from 
the authority of the officers, as it ought, a dim 
sight may easily perceive how the execution of 
the keys, by the officers authoritatively, may 
stand with the liberties of the people in their 
place, obediently following and concurring with 
their guides, so long as they go along with 
Christ their king and his laws ; and cleaving in 
their obedience to Christ, and dissenting from 
their guides, only when they forsake Christ in 
their administrations. If there need any occular 
demonstration liereof, it is at hand in all civil 
administrations wherein the execution of laws 
and of justice is in the hands of the judges, and 
the privilege, power, or liberty of the people in 



274 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

the hands of jurors. Both sweetly concur in 
every case, both civil and criminal. Neither is 
the use of a jury only to find the fact done, or 
not done, — as some answer this instance, — but 
also the nature and degree of the fact in refer- 
ence to the law that awards answerable punish- 
ments ; as, whether the fact be simple theft or 
burglary, murder or manslaughter, &;c. ; and so 
in cases of damages, costs in civil cases, &;c. ; 
whereby it appears, that although the power and 
privilege of the people be great, yet the execu- 
tion, authoritatively, may be wholly in the offi- 
cers.'"^ From these principles it followed, as 
the Platform afterwards declared, that all church 
acts proceed after the manner of a mixed admin- 
istration, in such a way that no church act 
can be regarded as valid without the consent of 
both, t 

/■' Every thing, in short, necessary to a clear 
understanding of the discipline and order of the 
early New England churches, is explained and 
vindicated in this Treatise, with a degree of 
learning and ability unsurpassed in any work of 
our Puritan fathers ; and no one can read it at- 
tentively without assigning to ifs author a high 
place among the controversial writers of that 



* Defence of Nine Positions, pp, 130, 131. 
t Cambridge Platform, ch. X. 



LIFE OF THOMAS SIIEPARD. 275 

age. The estimation in which this work was 
held by Mr. Slicpard's cotcmporaries, may 1)0 
inferred from a single sentence in Cotton's elo- 
quent Latin Preface to Norton's Answer to Ap- 
pollonius, written in 1645, and printed at London 
in 16 IS. After speaking of the labors of Hooker, 
Davenport, and Mather with high commendation, 
he refers to Shepard and Allen, as men of emi- 
nent piety ,^distinguished for erudition, and pow- 
erful preachers, — who had accomplished a great 
work for the church by happily solving some of 
the abstrusest points of ecclesiastical disci- 
pline in the answer to Ball ; and whose argu- 
ments, uttered in the spirit of piety, truth, and 
the love of Christ, were adapted to conciliate 
opposers, and recommend the order of our 
churches to all readers. ^ i 



* Sepharedus (qui vernaculo idiomate Shepardus) unacum Allienio 
fratre, frairuni dulce par, uli eximia pielate florent ambo, et erudi- 
lione non mediocri, aiqiie etiam mysleriorum pietatis praedicalione 
(per Chrisli graliam) efficaci adniodiiin, ita egregiam navanuit npe- 
ram in abslrusissimia disciplinBe nodi.s fcliciter enodandis : et dtim rei 
sponsum parent, aique rmric etiam eduiil Domino Baleo, non illi qui- 
dem satisfactum eunt (qui satis jam aperte videt in beatifica Agni 
visinne, introilus omnes atque exitus, formas et leges coelestis 
Hierusalem) sed iis omnibus, qui per universam Britanniam in 
ecclesiio Cliristi peregriuaiilur, et rei disciplinaric'e studiosius appel- 
lerunt. Verba horum fratrum uti suaviter spirant pielatem, verita- 
tem, charitatem Christ) ; ita speramus fore (per Christi gratiam,) ul 
muiti qui a disciplina Christi alieniores erant, odore horum unguen- 
toruni Christi elTiisorum delibali atque delincti, ad amorem ejus el 
pellecti et pertracti, earn avidius accipiant, atque amplexentur. 



276 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

Upon the principles so ably unfolded and de- 
fended in Mr. Shepard's treatise, and in others 
already referred to, although not digested into a 
system, nor formally adopted, the churches of 
Massachusetts were founded, and all ecclesiasti- 
cal affairs conducted, from the time of Mr. Cot- 
ton's arrival in 1633, until the adoption of the 
/Cambridge Platform in 1648. Mr. Shepard's 
personal agency in the production of this digest 
of the principles and uses of the churches, does 
not appear very clearly in the history of those 
times, but there are several circumstances from 
which we may reasonably infer that it was very 
great. It has already been stated that Mr. 
Shepard was at Hartford in 1644, and laid 
before the Conijnissioners for the United Col- 
onies, who met there at that time, a memorial 
touching some provision to be made for indi::^ 
gent students in Harvard college. Now it so 
happened that at that meeting of the Com- 
missioners, the idea of a public confession of _ 
faith, and a plan of church government, to be .^ 
approved by the churches in a general synocj, 
and published as a book of doctrine and disci- 
pline, was, so far as we know, first suggested and 
discussed. ^ Nothing is more probable than 



* Hazard's State Papers, TI. 24. 



LIFE OF THOMAS S H E T A 11 D . 277 



ihiat Mr. Shepard, or Mr. Hooker, then minister 
of Hartford, or both together, suggested this 
plan to the commissi(5ners, and urged them to 
adopt some measure by which it coukl be prop- 
erly brought before the court and the churches. 
^Be this, however, as it may, the Commission- 
ers at that time took the first step towards the 
convocation of the Synod which produced the 
Cambridge Platform, by agreeing to lay this 
subject before the General Court of Massa- 
chusetts. Accordingly, in the year 1646, a bill 
was brought into the General Court for calling a 
Synod, to accomplish the end proposed by the 
Commissioners. The magistrates readily passed 
the bill ; but there was a question among the 
Deputies whether the court could legally require 
the churches to send their pastors and delegates 
to such a synod ; and a fear was expressed that 
if the civil authority should thus interpose in 
ecclesiastical matters, a precedent might be es- 
tablished which would justify the court in at- 
tempting to enforce upon the churches a uni- 
formity entirely subversive of Christian liberty. 
It was also objected, that the sole purpose of the 
proposed Synod was to construct a Platform of 
Discipline for all the churches, to be reported to 
the General Court for its approval, which 
seemed to imply that either the Court or the 
VOL. IV. 24 



278 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

Synod had power to compel the churches to 
practice what should be thus established and 
recommended. In view of these objections, and 
from deference to the fears of those Deputies 
who offered them, it was finally ordered that 
the Synod should be called by way of a recom- 
mendation, and not of a command addressed to 
the churches. "^^ 

Mr. Hooker, writing to Mr. Shepard respect- 
ing the great object of this Synod, expresses his 
views of the plan, and his fears lest the author- 
ity of the magistrate and the binding power of 
synods should be pressed too far.^ 

"Dear Son, — 

" AVe are now preparing for your Synod. 
My years and infirmities grow so fast upon me, 
that they wholly disenable to so long a journey ; 
and because I cannot come myself, I provoke as 
many elders as I can to lend their help and 
presence. My brother Stone and my cousin 
Stebbings come from our church ; and I think 
the rest of the elders of the river will accompany 
them. The Lord Christ be in the midst among 

you by his guidance and blessing I have 

returned and do renew thanks for the letter and 



♦ Hubbard's Hist. N. Eng. ch. 58. 



LIFE OF T II M A t; S H E V A K I) . !279 



I 



copy of the passages of the Synod. I wish 
there may not be a misunderstanding of some 
things by some ; or that the binding power of 
synods be not pressed too much. For, 1 speak 
it only to yourself, he that adventures far in that 
business will find hot and hard work, or else my 
perspective may fail, which I confess may be : 
my eyes grow dim. I could easily give way 
to arguments that urge the help of a synod to 
counsel, but as for more, I find no trouble in my 
thoughts to answer all I ever yet heard pro- 
pounded. I find Mr. Rutherford and Appollo- 
nius to give somewhat sparingly to the place of 
the magistrate to put forth power in the call- 
ing of synods ; wherein I perceive they go 
cross to some of our most serious and judi- 
cious writers ; and if I mistake not they cross 
their own principles sometimes. I confess I am 
apt to give too much to the supreme magistrate 
in some men's thoughts, and I give not much to 
the church's authority. However, I shall not 
trouble you with my thoughts ; qui bene hahuit, 
bene vixit. I could have wished that none of 
the copies sent to us, had been sent to England: 
the reason my brother Stone will relate when he 
sees you ; for it is too large, and not so safe to 
commit to paper. The blessing of heaven be 
with you. 



280 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEl'ARD. 

" Entreat Mr. Eliot to send me some grafts 
of a great yellow apple he hath, which I liked 
exceedingly when I was with him the last 
time. Totus tuus, 

T. Hooker."^ 

The Synod met at Cambridge in the autumn 
of the year 1646; but so late in the season, and 
so few of the Pastors invited from the other colo- 
nies were able to be present, that after a session 
of fourteen days, it was adjourned to the eighth 
day of June of the following year, 1647. 

They met according to adjournment ; but at 
the time of meeting a great sickness was prevail- 
ing in the country, and it was again adjourned 
to the 30th of September, 1648. At this meet- 
ing of the Synod, the Confession of Faith, and 
Platform of church government, after thorough 
discussion, were adopted and laid before the Gen- 
eral Court for their approval; and the Court at 
its next session formally accepted and approved 
the Platform, declaring that it was what the 
churches had hitherto practiced ; and, in their 
judgment, as to its essential principles, altogether 
in accordance with the word of God. Thus the 
Cambridge Platform became a part of the laws 
and usages of the Commonwealth of Massachu- 



* Hutchinson's MSS. Papers, Vol. I. 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 281 

setts, and, for substance, is still followed by the 
Congregational churches throughout New Eng- 
land. 

A Of this work it is scarcely possible to speak 
too highly. It was the production of men dis- 
tinguished for preeminent talents, learning, and 
piety, — for their sacrifices and sufferings in the 
cause of religious liberty, — and for their untiring 
zeal for the prosperity of the church : and, as a 
whole, may be pronounced the m.ost Scriptural 
and excellent model of church government 
which has been framed since the time of the 
apostles. The Fathers of New England, both 
civil and religious, regarded it, and the authors 
of it, with extraordinary respect ; and if in these 
days there are any who profess to hold it in 
slight estimation, it is because they are either 
unacquainted with its real character, or have 
forsaken the faith and order of the Puritans. 
" We who saw the persons, who, from our fa- 
mous colonies assembled in the Synod that 
agreed upon the Platform of Church-Disci- 
pline," — such is the language of Higginson and 
Hubbard near the close of that century, — " can- 
not forget their excellent character. They were 
of great renown in the nation from which the 
Laudian persecution exiled them. Their 

learning, their holiness, their gravity, struck all 
o4# 



282 LIFE OF THOIMAS SHEPAR.D. 

men with admiration. They were Timothys 
in their houses ; Chrysostoms in their pulpits ; 
Augustines in their disputations. The prayers, 
the studies, the humble inquiries, with which 
they sought after the mind of God, were as 
likely to prosper as any men's on earth. And 
the sufferings wherein they were confessors for 
the name and the truth of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
add unto the arguments which would persuade 
us that our gracious Lord would reward and 
honor them with communicating much of his 
truth unto them. The famous Brightman had 
foretold, that God would yet reveal more of the 
true church state to some of his faithful servants, 
whom he would send into the wilderness, that he 
might have communion with them; and it was 
eminently accomplished in what was done for 
and by the men of God that first erected church- 
es for him in this American wilderness."^ 
If the EcclesiasticalPrinciples, so clearly devel- 
oped in the Platform, were solemnly re-affirmed 
by a body, which, like the Synod that formed 
it, should represent the Congregational churches 
of New England ; and this book, — with such 
modifications as time and change have rendered 
necessary, — were universally received as au- 



* Higginsoji's and Hubbard's Teslinion}' to the Oidcr of iha 
Churches. 



LIFE OF THOMAS S H P: P A R D . 283 

thoritative ia respect to Church-Discipline, ma- 
ny growing evils might, perhaps, receive a 
check, and the unity and strength of our denom- 
ination be greatly promoted. Such a move- 
ment, devoutly to be wished by all who love the 
institutions of the Puritans, may possibly find 
favor with the churches ; and Cambridge, the 
ancient place of synods, may again witness a 
gathering like that of 1648. In the mean time, 
the more closely we adhere to the scheme of 
ecclesiastical polity set forth by that venerable 
assembly, the more confidentl}'' may we expect 
that Congregationalism will maintain its ascend- 
ency in New England, and commend itself to 
the consciences and the hearts of intelligent 
Christians throughout our country. 

While Mr. Shepard was thus engaged in la- 
bors abundant and fruitful for the advancement 
of the great work which he and his noble asso- 
ciates came into " these ends of the earth " to do, 
he was visited by an unexpected and grievous 
calamity. ^On the second day of April, 1646, 
the Lord gave him another son, but took away 
his " most dear, precious, meek, and loving wife 
in child-bed, after three weeks lying-in," leaving 
nim again desolate in his trials.. ^Mrs. Shepard, 
from all that can be learned of her, seems to 
have been worthy of the tender epithets which 



284 LIFE OF THOINIAS SHEPARD. 

her bereaved husband here bestows upon her. 
i She was evidently a woman of superior mind 
and attainments, — of great prudence, — of an ex- 
ceedingly amiable disposition, — and of eminent 
piety. " This affliction," says Mr. Shepard, 
" was very great. She was a woman of 
incomparable meekness of spirit, towards my- 
self especially, and very loving; of great 
prudence to care for and order my family 
affairs, being neither too lavish nor sordid in 
any thing, so that I knew not what was under 

her hand The Lord hath made her a 

great blessing to me to carry on matters in the 

family, with much care and wisdom She 

had an excellency to reprove for sin, and discern 
the evils of men. She loved God's people 
dearly, and was studious to profit by their fel- 
lowship, and therefore loved their company. 
She loved God's word exceedingly, and hence 
she was glad she could read my notes, which 
she had to muse on every week. She had a 
spirit of prayer, beyond ordinary of her time and 
experience. She was fit to die long before she 
did die, even after the death of her first born, 
which was a great affliction to her. But her 
work not being done then, she lived almost nine 
years with mc, and was the comfort of my life 
to me ; and the last sacrament before her lying- 



LIFE OF THOMAS SirEl'ARD. 235 

in, seemed to be full of Christ, and thereby- 
fitted for heaven./ She did oft say she should 
not outlive this child; and when her fever first 
begun, by taking some cold, she told me that 
we should love one another exceedingly, be- 
cause we should not live long together. *. Her 
fever took away her sleep ; want of sleep 
wrought much distemper in her head, and filled 
it with fantasies and distractions, but without 
raging.; The night before she died, she had 
about six hours' unquiet sleep. But that so 
cooled and settled her head, that when she 
knew none else, so as to speak to them, yet she 
knew Jesus Christ, and could speak to him; 
and therefore, as soon as she awakened out of 
sleep, she broke out into a most heavenly, heart- 
breaking prayer after Christ, her dear Redeem- 
er, for the spirit of life, and so continued praying, 
to the last hour of her death, ' Lord though I 
am unworthy, one word — one word,' &c., and 
so gave up the ghost. Thus the Lord hath vis- 
ited and scourged me for my sins, and sought to 
wean me from this world. But I have ever 
found it a difficult thing to profit even but a 
little by the sorest and sharpest afflictions." ^ 



2S6 LIFE OF T n J\I A S S H E r A U I) 



CHAPTER XII. 

Indian Mission. Establishment of an Indian Lecture at Cambridge. 
Mr. Shepard'a interest in the Indian Blission. " Clear Sunshine." 
Mr. Shepard marries Margarett Boradel. Sickness and death. 
Last will. Mr. Shepard's preaching. Opinion of cotemporaries 
respecting his usefulness. Character of Mr. Shepard's writings. 
Objections against some of his practical works answered. Letter 
to Giles Fermin. Opinion of several Divines respecting Mr. Shep- 
ard's works. Personal religion. Conclusion. 

The labors and influence of ]\Ir. Shepard, and 
of those good men with whom he was associated, 
were directed chiefly, as has been seen in the 
foregoing chapters, to the accomplishment of 
their first great undertaking, which was to found 
a truly Christian commonwealth in New Eng- 
land, where they and their posterity might en- 
joy civil and religious freedom. But they did 
not forget or neglect another important work, 
which was to preach the gospel to the natives of 
this country, and to bring these poor outcasts to 
the knowledge of God. Many persons,"ignorant 
of tlie history of those times, and disposed to find 
fault with our Fathers, not only with, but with- 
out cause, have severely censured them for 



LIFE OF THOMAS S II li 1' A R D . 287 

what has been called their unjust and cruel, 
treatment of the poor Indians, — their utter neg- 
lect of the wants both temporal and spiritual, of 
thS'original owners of the soil whom they vio- 
lently expelled, — and the selfishness which char- 
acterized all their treatment of those to whom 
they owed their comfortable home on these 
shores. This is not the place for the defence of 
the colonists from this charge, or for the history 
of early Indian Missions in New England. 
That work belongs appropriately to the ^ife of 
Eliot. the "Apo^stle to the Indians." \The only 
object in referring to the subject here, is to show 
how deeply Mr. Shepard was interested in all 
efforts to civilize and Christianize the natives of 
Massachusetts. It will suffice to say, — and the 
facts will warrant the assertion, — that the gov- 
ernment and the churches of this State, in their 
deep poverty and innumerable hindrances, did 
very much, — more probably in proportion to 
their ability, — for the propagation of the gospel 
among the Indians on this part of the continent, 
than is done now with all our means, for the 
conversion of the heathen abroad or at home. It 
is a fact, which will ever be remembered to the 
glory of God, and to the praise of our Fathers, 
that the first Protestant mission to the heathen 
since the time of the Apostles, was commenced 



2S8 LIFE OF THOIMAS SHEPARD. 

amqiT^ the Indians in the town of Cambridge in . 
Massachusetts ; and that tlie first translation of 
the Bible by an Anglo-Sax;£(jQL into a heathen 
language, was made by John Eliot, pastor of the 
church in Roxbury, and printed at Cambridge, 
where the first Protestant sermon in a Pagan 
tonigiue was delivered. Legal provision was made 
by the government for the support of preaching 
among these Indians. Schools were established 
for the instruction of their children. Courts were 
established for the especial purpose of protecting 
their rights, and of punishing trespasses against 
them. Great and good men, among whom El-r 
iot and Shepard^ stand pre^minentj devoted 
themselves to the difficult work of establishino- 
the in^^titulions of the gospel amongst them, and 
leading them to obedience to the laws of Christ. 
A college building was erected at Cambridge 
expressly for the purpose of giving to Indian 
youth a liberal education, that they might be- 
come teachers, ministers, and magistrates among 
their countrymen; and although this design 
proved abortive, the failure was owing not to 
any want of zeal in those who commenced it, 
but to the inherent and insurmountable difficulty 
of the work itself. ' Not a foot of land, for which 
an owner could be found, was ever taken by the 
early settlers without ample remuneration ; and 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 289 

if wc hear of Indian wars, they were wars in 
which the colonists were compelled to defend 
their lives and their lawful possessions against 
the unprovoked attacks of savage and relentless 
foes.^ It was one part of their original design, 
as we have said, to " advance the honor of God, 
of their king and country, by this settlement, 
without injury to the native inhabitants." They 
meant " to take nothing but what the Indians 
were willing to dispose of; nor to interfere 
with them, except for the maintenance of peace 
among them and the propagation of Christian- 
ity." 
/ Mr. Shepard, if not the most prominent agent 
in this good work, was nevertheless a most 
zealous and faithful promoter of it. There was 
probably no one, except Mr. Eliot, to whom the 
Indians were more indebted for those measures 
which concerned their civil or their spiritual 
welfare. The first missionary station where 
Mr. Eliot s^edly preached to them, was fixed 
at Nonantum, in Cam^idge, in the year 1646. 
Mr. Shepard watched ^ver the infant church 
gathered there with parental solicitude and kind- 
ness. He frequently attended the weekly lec- 
ture held by Mr. Eliot ; and although he could 
not preach in the Indian language, yet several 
tracts written by him for this purpose, were 
VOL. IV. 25 



290 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

translated by his friend, and he was thus ena- 
bled to teach them the rudiments of the oracles 
of God. ^And thus Cambridge has the honor of, 
furnishing: the first Protestant Tract in a heathen, 
language, as well as the first heathen mis- 
sion, and the first Protestant translation of the 
Bible.) 

/ Mr. Shepard has given an interesting ac- 
^count of the progress of the work in and 
about Cambridge, in a letter to a friend in 
England, which was afterwards published under 
the title of " The Clear Sunshine of the Gospel 
breaking forth upon the Indians in New Eng- 
land," designed especially to describe the effect 
of Mr. Eliot's labors, but incidentally exhibiting 
his own interest and agency in the mission. 
During the winter he was confined at home, 
but on the 3d of March, 1647, he attend- 
ed the Indian Lecture, " where Mr. Wilson, Mr. 
Allen, of Dedham, Mr. Dunster, beside many 
other Christians, were present, on which day 
perceiving divers of the Indian women well 
affected, and considering that their souls might 
stand in need of answers to their scruples 
as well as the men's, we did therefore desire 
them to propound any questions they would be 
resolved about, by first acquainting their hus- 
bands or the interpreter privately themselves ; 



LIFE OF THOMAS S II K I' A li I) . U9 1 

whereupon we heard two questions thus orderly 
propounded. At this time there were sundry 
others propounded of very good use ; in all 
which we saw the Lord Jesus leading them to 
make narrow inquiries into the things of God, 
that so they might see the reality of them. I 
have heard few Christians, when they begin to 
look towards God, make more searching ques- 
tions that they might see things really, and not 

only have a notion of them From this 

third of March until the end of this summer, I 
could not be present at the Indian lectures ; but 
when I came the last time, I marveled to see so 
many Indian men and women and children in 
English apparel; — they being at Noonanetum 
generally clad, especially upon lecture days, 
which they have got partly by gift from the Eng- 
lish, and partly by their own labors, by which 
some of them have very handsomely appareled 
themselves, and you would scarce know them 
from English people. . . . There is one thing 
more which I would acquaint you with, which 
happened this summer, viz : June 9, the first 
day of the Synod's meeting at Cambridge, where 
the forenoon was spent in hearing a sermon 
preached by one of the elders, (Ezekiel Rogers, 
of Rowley,) as a preparation to the work of the 
Synod. The afternoon was spent in hearing 



292 LIFE OF THOMAS SIIKPARD. 

an Indian lecture, where there was a great con- 
fluence of Indians from all parts to hear Mr. 
Eliot ; which we conceived not unseasonable a 
such a time, — partly that the reports of God' 
work begun among them, might be seen and 
believed of the chief who were then sent, and 
met from all the churches of Christ in the coun- 
try, who could hardly believe the reports they 
had received concerning these new stirs among 
the Indians, — and partly hereby to raise up a 
greater spirit of prayer for the carrying on of the 
work begun upon the Indians, among all the 
churches and servants of the Lord. . . . When 
the sermon was done, there was a convenient 
space of time spent in hearing those questions 
which the Indians publicly propounded, and in 

giving answers to them That which I 

note is this, that their gracious attention to the 
word, the affections and mourning of some of 
them under it, their sober propounding of divers 
spiritual questions, their aptness to understand 
and believe what was replied to them, the readi- 
ness of divers poor naked children to answer 
openly the chief questions in the catechism 
which were formerly taught them, and such like 
appearances of a great change upon them, did 
marvelously affect all the wise and godly minis- 
ters, magistrates, and people, and did raise their 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 293 

hearts up to a great thankfulness to God ; very 
many deeply and abundantly mourning for joy, 
to see such a blessed day, and the Lord Jesus 
so much known and spoken of among such as 
never heard of him before.''}. . . . 

Towards the latter part of this year, 1647, 
Mr. Shepard, together with Mr. Eliot and Mr. 
Wilson, were invited by the inhabitants of Yar- 
mouth to meet with some of the elders of Ply- 
mouth colony, for the purpose of settling, — if 
possible, — a difficulty which had been of long- 
standing among them, and which threatened to 
divide and destroy the church in that place. 
" Wherein," says Mr. Shepard, "the Lord was 
very merciful to us and them, in binding them 
up beyond our thoughts in a very short time, in 
giving not only that bruised church, but the 
whole town also, a hopeful beginning of a settled 
peace and future quietness. But Mr. Eliot, as 
he takes all other advantages of times, so he took 
this, of speaking with and preaching to the poor 
Indians in those remote places about Cape Cod.j^ 
" Thus you have a true but somewhat rent 
and ragged relation of these things ; it may 
be most suitable to the story of naked and rag- 
ged men If any in England doubt of 

the truth of what was formerly writ, or if any 
malignant eye shall question or vilify this work, 
25* 



294 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

they will now speak too late ; for what was 
here done at Cambridge was not set under a 
bushel, but in the open sun, that what Thomas 
would not believe by the report of others, he 
might be forced to believe by seeing with his 
own eyes, and feeling Christ Jesus thus risen 
among them, with his own hand.""^ 
/ On the eighth of September, 1647, Mr. Shep- 
• ard married, for his third wife, Margaret Boradel, 
by whom he had one son, Jeremiah, born Aug. 
11, 164S, and who, after his death, became 
the wife of Jonathan Mitchell, his successor in 
the church at Cambridge^ 

Mr. Shepard's work upon earth was now al- 
most finished, and his useful life was rapidly 
drawing to a close. His health had at no period 
of his life been very vigorous, and he was liable 
to frequent attacks of illness. He was, as John- 
son tells us, " a poor, weak, pale-complexioned 
man, whose physical powers were feeble, but 
spent to the full ; " fond he says of himself, that 
he was " very weak, and unfit to be tossed up 
and down and to bear persecution. "J It js as- 
tonishing that with such a feeble body he was 
able to endure so many " afflictions and tempta 
lions," and to perform such an amount of intel 



* Clear Sunshine, &c., passim. 



L1F£ OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 295 

lectual and other labor. In August, 1649, upon 
his return from a meeting of ministers at Row- 
ley, he took a severe cold, which terminated in 
quincy, • accompanied by fever, and in a few 
days '* stopped a silver trumpet from whence the 
people of God had often heard the joyful sound. 
oTlhe gospel." He died August 25, 1649, in 
the forty-fourth year of his age, universally 
lamented by the whole colony in whose service 
he had exhausted' all his powers. "The next 
loss," says Johnson, " was the death of that 
famous preacher of the Lord, Mr. Hooker, pastor 
of the church at Hartford, and Mr. Phillips, pas- 
tor of the church at Watertown, and the holy, 
heavenly, soul-afiecting, soul-ravishing minister^ . 
Mr. Thomas Shepard, pastor of the church at 
Cambridge, whose departure was very heavily 
taken by all the people of Christ round about 
him ; and now New England, that had such 
heaps upon heaps of the riches of Christ's tender, 
compassionate mercies, being turned from his 
dandling knees, began to read their approaching 
rod, in the bend of his brow and frowns of his 
former favorable countenance towards them."^ 

The words of the dying are generally regarded 
as deeply significant ; and the last expressions 
of a soul on the ver":e of heaven are treasured 



^Mr. 



* Wonder- Working Providence, p. 213. 



296 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

up and repeated by the living as revelations 
from the inner sanctuary of truth. /The nature 
of the disease of which Mr. Shepard died, per- 
haps prevented him from speaking much upon 
his death-bed ; and many things which he may 
have said have not, probably, been reported to 
us. A few precious sayings, however, have 
been preserved, and coming across the gulf of 
two hundred years, sound like a voice from 
heaven, y^' love the Lord Jesus Christ very 
much," said he to those who stood by his bed- 
side watching his ebbing breath, " that little part 
which I have in him, is no small comfort to me 
now." jThe pious Baily of Watertown has pre- 
served in his Diary a sentence from those dying 
lips, which is worthy to form the practical 
maxim of every minister. ^To several young 
ministers who visited him just before his de- 
cease, he said, " Your work is great, and calls 
for great seriousness. As to myself, I can say 
three things ; that the study of every sermon 
cost me tears ; that before I preached a sermon, 
I got good by it myself; and that I always 
went up into the pulpit, as if I were to give up 
my account to my master. "J " O that my soul," 
adds Baily, " may remember, and practice ac- 
cordingly."^ 

* Extract from Baily's Diary, in Mather's Ma^alia. 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 297 



f Among liis dying words, and perhaps not less 
indicative of his spiritual state than those al- 
ready quoted, we may place his last will. It 
was dictated to his friends Daniel Gookiii, and 
Samuel Djjjiforth but a few moments before his 
spirit departed ; and in the calmness with which 
he disposed of all his worldly substance for the 
benefit of the living, while he gave up his soul 
to God in the assurance of a glorious immor- 
tality, through the merits of Jesus Christ, we 
see the true character and the all-pervading in- 
fluence of his personal religion. /It had been his 
aim through life to do all things to the glory of 
God ; and when he came to die, it seemed to 
him as much an act of piety to take thought for 
the welfare of those whom he was to leave be- 
hind, as to meditate upon the crown that awaited 
him in heaven, J 



r 



On the 25th day of the 6th month (August) 
1649. Mr. Thomas Shepard, Pastor of the 
church at Cambridge, being of perfect memory, 
and haidng his understanding clear, made his 
last will and testament in the presence of Daniel 
Gookin and Samuel Danforth. 

Upon the day and year above written, about 
two o'clock in the mornings he feeling his spirits 
failing, commanded all persons lo avoid the 



298 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEFARiJ. 

roome except those before named, and then 
desiring their attendance, spake distinctly unto 
them as folio weth, or words to like effect : 

I desire to take this opportunity to make my 
will, and I intreat you to observe what I speak, 
and take witnesses to it. 

1 I Believe in the everlasting God the 
Father, and his eternal son Christ Jesus, and 
communion of the Holy Spirit ; and this God I 
have chosen for my only portion : and in the 
everlasting mercies of this same God, Father, 
Son, and Holy Spirit, I rest and repose my 
soul. 

2 All my whole temporal estate (my debts 
being first paid) I leave with my dear wife, 
during her estate of widowhood ; that she may 
with the same, maintain herself and educate my 
children in learning, especially my sons Thomas 
and Samuel. 

3 In case my wife marry again, then my 
will is that my wife shall have such a proportion 
of my estate as my Executors shall judge meet. 
And also I give unto her the gold which is in a 
certain box in my study. 

4 The residue of my estate I give and be- 
queath to my four children as followeth, viz : 
(1) A double portion to my eldest son Thomas, 
together with my best silver tankard, and my 



L 1 F K OF THOMAS S H E T A R D . 299 

best black suit and cloak, and all my books, 
manuscripts and papers : .which last named, viz : 
books, manuscripts and papers, although the 
properly of my sou Thomas, yet they shall be 
for the use of my wife and my other children. 
(2) To my sou Samuel a single portion, together 
with one of my long silver bowls. (3) To my 
son John I bequeath a single portion, with the 
other long silver bowl. (4) To my son Jere- 
miah a single portion, and my other silver 
tankard. 

5 I give and bequeath as a legacy to my 
beloved friend Mr. Samuel Danforth my velvet 
cloak and ten pounds. 

6 I give unto the elders to be equally di- 
vided, five pounds that Mr. Pelham oweth me. 

7 I give unto my cousin Stedman five 

pounds. 

8 I give to Ruth Mitchenson the elder, ten 

pounds. 

Lastly I do hereby appoint my dear friends 
and brethren, Daniel Gookin, Edward Collins, 
Edward Goflfe, and Samuel Danforth, to be execu- 
tors of this my last will and testament. 
DANIEL GOOKIN. 
SAMUEL DANFORTH.^- 

* The inventory of Mr. Shepinl'.^ esta'.e, consinin- of Iannis, ftir- 
nimre, an 1 ii'orary, amounted to £S10„09,01. His l.ooks.-alout 



300 LIFE OF THOIMAS SHEPARD. 

( Thus died Thomas Shepard, in the peace of 
God that passeth all miderstanding, which kept 
his mind and his heart througli^esus Christ. 
There is something in this dying scene which 
reminds of one of the most beautiful and affect- 
ing incidents in the life of that Saviour whom 
Shepard so much resembled. " When Jesus 
therefore saw his mother, and the disciple stand- 
ing by whom he loved, he saith to his mother, 
Woman, behold thy son ! Then saith he to the 
disciple, Behold thy mother ! And from that 
hour that disciple took her unto his own house." 
\^r. Shepard was buried at Cambridge amidst 
the regrets and the tears of a congregation and , 
i,a.collgg;e that owed, under God, their existence, 
s^d their prosperity to his devoted labors and 
sacrifices. jBut " no man (now) knoweth of his 
sepulchre."^ Such have been the changes which 
time and accident have produced, that no stone 
remains to mark the place of his rest, nor is it 
possible to identify the grave that holds his pre- 
cious dust/ His friend, Mr. Buckley, as an ex- 
pression of his love and grief, wrote a latin 
elegy upon tlie occasion of his death, of which 
Mather hns preserved iwo lines, as a compre- 
hensive epitnph, descriptive at once of his faith- 
fulness and of his success in his ministry. / 

two hundicil and si.viy in number,— together with several MSS. 
were valued at jCIOO. 



LIFE OF THOMAS S II E T A R D . 301 

" Nominis, ofliciiq : fuit Concordia (liilcis ; 
Officio Pastor, noiuiiiie Pastor cral. 

His name and odice sweetly did agree, 
Shepard by name, and in his niini.slry." 

That Mr. Shepard must have been a powerful 
and an efficient preacher, might be inferred from 
what we know of his spiritual preparation for 
the ministry, — of the purity and elevation of his 
personal religion, — of his close and humble 
walk with God, — of his devotion to the interests 
of his flock, — if we had not the testimony of co- 
temporaries who were eye-witnesses and heart- 
witnesses of the effects which his preaching pro- 
duced. When we are told that he always 
finished his preparation for the pulpit by two 
o'clock, on Saturday afternoon, believing " that 
God would curse that man's labors who goes 
lumbering up and down in the world all the 
week, and then upon Saturday afternoon goes 
to his study, whenas God knows that time were 
little enough to pray in, and weep in, and get 
his heart into a frame fit for the approaching 
Sabbath, — when we know that he wept in the 
composition of his sermons, — that he went into 
the pulpit as if he expected there to give up his 
account of his stewardship, — that he always de- 
rived some spiritual benefit from his discourses 
before he delivered them to his people, — and 
VOL. IV. 26 



302 LIFE OF THOIMAS SHEPARD. 

that the conversion of his hearers was the great 
end of his preaching, — we are sure that his ser- 
mons must have been effective, and, like the 
word of God, of which they were but the echo, 
quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged 
sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of 
the joints and marrow, and laying bare the 
thoughts and intents of the heart. That intense 
zeal in the service of God, — that unreserved 
self-consecration to the work of turning man 
from darkness to light, — that holy patience in 
tribulation, — that baptism of sermons in tears, — 
those *' heavenly prayers," — could not but ren- 
der him 

•' A son of thunder, and a shower of rain." 

And this inference is justified and confirmed 
by those who saw and felt the power of his 
preaching. " This year," 1649, says Morton, 
" that faithful, and eminent servant of Christ, 
Mr. Thomas Shepard, died. He was a soul- 
searching minister of the Gospel. By his 
death, not only the church and people of Cam- 
bridge but also all New England sustained a 
very great loss. He not only preached the 
gospel profitably and very successfully, but also 
hath left behind him divers worthy works of 
special use in reference to the clearing up of 



LIFE OF THOMAS S H i: I' A It D . 303 

the state of the soul to God and man ; the bene- 
fit whereof, those can best experience who are 
most conversant in the improvement of them, 
and have God's blessing on them therein to their 
soul's good."^ /There is a tradition, received 
by Mr. Prince from the old men of his day, and 
by him handed down to us, that he " scarce ever 
preached a sermon but some one or other of his 
congregation were struck with great distress, 
and cried out in agony, ' What shall I do to be 
saVed ;' and that though his voice was low, yet 
so searching was his preaching, and so great a 
power attending, as a hypocrite could not easily 
bear, it, and it seemed almost irresistible."! 
Johnson cannot find epithets enough to express 
his personal excellence, nor language to set forth 
the wonderful effects of his public ministrations : 
" that gracious, sweet, heavenly-minded, and 
soul-ravishing minister," being the common, and 
apparentl}^ inadequate terms in which he speaks 
of the pastor of Cambridge. " In whose soul," 
says the enthusiastic eulogist, " the Lord shed 
abroad his love so abundantly, that thousands of 
souls have cause to bless Gdd for him, even at 
this very day, who are the seal of his ministry; 
and he a man of a thousand, endued with abund- 



* Morion's New Eagland IMemorial, p. 169. 
t Prince's Sermons published by Erskine, p. 60. 



304 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

ance of true, saving knowledge for himself and 
others. 

f But perhaps the most discriminating and com- 
"petent witness to Mr. Shepard's power in the 
pulpit, is Jonathan Mitchel, who, if not convert- 
ed, was certainly greatly enlightened and aided 
in his inquiries after truth, by his ministry. 
Mr. Mitchel, as Mather tells us, kept a journal 
of his inward life, a few extracts from which are 
preserved in the Magnalia. On one occasion 
he made this entry : " I had hardly any savour 
on my spirit before God ; but a terrible and 
most excellent sermon of Mr. Shepard, awakened 
me. He taught me that there are some who 
seem to be found and saved by Christ, and yet 
afterwards they perish. These remarks terrified 
me. I begged of God that he would have 
mercy on me, and accomplish the whole work of 
his grace for me." On another occasion he thus 
writes : " Mr. Shepard preached most profitably. 
That night I was followed with serious thoughts 
of my inexpressible misery, wherein I go on from 
Sabbath to Sabbath without God and without 
redemption."! « Mr. Mitchel succeeded ]\Ir. 
Shepard, and his first sermons were full of lam- 
entations over'the loss which he and the people 



* Magnalia, B. IV. pp. 1G3, 169. 
tlb. 



LIFE OF THOMAS SIIEPARFj. 305 

had suffered in the extinction of "that light of New 
England/y On one occasion, when referring to 
the few years which he had lived under Mr. 
Shepard's ministry, he said, " Unless it had 
been four years living in heaven, I know not 
how I could have more cause to bless God with 
wonder than for those four years." "^ After all, 
perhaps the general impression which he pro- 
duced upon the people to whom he preached, — 
the character of the piety which grew up under 
his ministrations, — and the spiritual state of the 
church, — furnish the best proofs of his power. 
Mr. Mitchel was at first very reluctant, even 
when urged by Mr. Shepard upon his death- bed, 
to- occupy the pulpit of his illustrious teacher ; 
and the only consideration which finally induced 
him to accept the pastoral charge of that congre- 
gation was, as he himself declared, " that they 
were a gracious, savoury-spirited people, prin- 
cipled by Mr. Shepard, liking an humbling, 
mourning, heart-breaking ministry and spirit : 
living in religion, praying men and women." 
A preacher who could make such a man as 
I Mitchel feel that he was living for four years in 
heaven, and leave such an impression upon a 
whole people, must have been, to use the Ian-. 



* Magnalia, B. IV. p. 172. 

26^ 



306 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

guage of the venerable Higginson, — a " Chrys- 
ostom in the pulpit," and a " Timothy in his 
family," and in the church. 
/■ As a writer, Mr. Shepard deservedly holds a 
high rank among the most able divines which 
Puritanism, — fruitful in great men, — has ever 
produced. His works are controversial, doc- 
trinal, and practical. He was " an Augustine 
in disputation," as well as a Chrysostom in the 
pulpit ; and like a scribe well instructed, he pro- 
duced several works which are of permanen 
value for doctrine and instruction in righteous- 
ness^ His " Theses SABBATiciE," or " Doctrine/ 
of the Sabbath,''' is a masterly discussion of the 
moralityT^Q change, the beginning, and the 
sanctijication of the Sabbath. It is the substance 
of several sermons upon the fourth command- 
ment, and was thrown into the scholastic form 
of theses, or short propositions, at the earnest 
request, and for the particular use of the stu-^ 
dents in the college. ) Afterwair3s, at the desire 
of all the Elders in New England, the work was 
somewhat enlarged, and published in its present 
form, in 1649. It is now very rare, not more 
than two or three copies being known to be ex- 
tant. i^With respect to the precise time at which 
the Christian Sabbath begins, he differed slightly 
from some of the elders ; and Mr. Allen, together 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 307 

with several others, wrote friendly, argumenta- 
tive letters to him upon that point ; but the ques- 
tion seems to be of too little interest or impor- 
tance to call for any remark in this place. Of the 
" Answer to Ball," we have already spoken. 
The Preface to that book contains an admirable 
exposition of the grounds upon which our Fa- 
thers proceeded in their great great enterprise in 
New England, and if republished by itself, as it 
was a great many years ago, would be an in- 
vahiable Tract for the times. 
f About three months before his death, he wrote 
a letter to a friend upon the subject of Infant 
Baptism, in which he felt a deep interest. It 
was published in 1663, at the earnest request of 
many who had heard of its effect upon the per- 
son to whom it was addressed, under the title 
of The Church Membership of CmLDREN, and 
their Right to Baptism, according to that holy 
and everlasting covenant of God, established be- 
tween himself and the faithful, and their seed 
after them in their generations." Of all the 
works upon Infant Baptism, — and they are 
many, — which have been written in New Engj 
land, this letter of Shepard's may be regarded 
as one of the most able and satisfactory.,] 

Mr. Shepard's style is often rugged, but full 
of passages of sweet and quiet beauty, which 



308 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEFARD. 

makes the reader think of pure water g^ushing 
from some craggy rock, or of flowers springing 
up on the side of a rough pathway. (He utters 
great thoughts without any apparent preparation 
or effort, as if they were ever present and most 
familiar to his mind ; and amidst his most ele- 
vated or abstruse reasoning, continually sur- 
prises and delights the reader with utterances 
Avhich seem to come from the heart of a little 
child, ijin his polemics there is no bitterness. 
He never takes an unfair advantage of an op- 
ponent ; nor uses abusive language in the place 
of argument. ) He is always serious, candid, 
frank, and charitable. <He held, and taught the 
distinguishing doctrines of grace, which Calvin 
before him had discussed ; but he never presents 
them as dry dogmas, nor uses any language 
respecting them which is calculated to wound, 
unnecessarily, a serious mind.^ sHe always ap- 
pears lovely in the most terrible passages ; and 
makes one feel the influence of his gentle spirit, 
while he sends the truth with overwhelming 
power to the conscience. [ He was a Puritan and 
«. Congregationalist ; but in maintaining and de- 
fending his position against those whose words 
were " drawn swords," his spirit is always un- 
ruffled, and his remonstrances, though uttered 



LIFE OF THOMAS S n H 1' A R D . 309 

with earnestness, convey no venom into the 
wound which they produce.) 
/* There is a class of persons, who, while they 
do ample justice to Mr. Shepard's talents, learn- 
ing-, and piety, yet complain much of what they 
term the severe, legal, discouraging aspect of 
some of his Practical writings, — particularly 
those in which he exhibits the conditions of sal- 
vation, and endeavors to lead a sinner to Christ. 
The remarks of a recent English author upon 
this alledged characteristic of Shepard's works, 
exhibit all the objections that have ever been 
made against them. • " The Treatises of S. and 
D. Rogers, Th. Hoo2er, and the New England 
Shepard," says he, " cannot be read without 
grave exceptions. For in these valuable wri- 
ters, — and others might be named, — amidst 
much that is super-excellent, there are state- 
ments as to the constitution of a Christian 
which look austere ; — which, by checking the 
freeness of salvation, become, though contrary 
to intention, stumbling blocks, and the occasion 
of mental trouble. Instead of at once directing 
sinners, as the apostles did, to the finished 
atonement, — to the propitiatory v/ork of Christ, 
— of urging them to take God at his word, — to 
receive the testimony given of his Son, and so 
to possess joy and peace in believing, these good 



310 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

men seem to have been infected with the an- 
cient errors, which confined evangelical teaching 
to the initiated. They evidently thought a rou- 
tine of tedious preparation needful before coming 
to the Saviour. Qualifications, therefore un- 
known to the word of God, were prescribed, and 
rules laid down, which not merely concealed 
great and precious promises, but savored of a 
legal spirit, and kept out of view that death unto 
the law, which is the life of evangelical obe- 
dience." ^ 

f In this general charge of austere and legal 
teaching, which, as this writer says, obscures 
the promises and grace of the gospel, we do not 
distinctly perceive the points wherein Mr. Shep- 
ard is supposed to be erroneous. But in Giles 
Firmin's "Real Christian," a book which was 
written expressly for the purpose of correcting 
the errors of the " Sincere Convert," — one of Mr. 
Shepard's most practical works, — the dangerous 
doctrines are set forth, and controverted at 
length. In this book Mr. Shepard teaches 
that the preparatory work which every sinner 
must experience before he can receive the grace 
of God in Christ, includes conviction of si7i, — 
compunction, — and humiliation; — that the sin- 



* Letters on the Puritans, by J. B. Williams, p. 170. 



LIFK OF THOMAS i>HErARD.3ll 

ner must be satisfied with the will of God, 
though his suit shoukl be unsuccessful ; — that 
the soul must le so humbled as lo be willing 
that Christ should dispose of it according to his 
pleasure ; — that the sinner must seek the glory 
of God's grace above his own salvation ; — and 
that in this work of conviction, compunction, 
and humiliation, we must be so thoroughly di- 
vested of all self-confidence and disposition to 
dictate to God, that he shall appear supremely 
excellent, though we may never partake of his 
love. 
"^Pirmin thought that a person under such a 
preparatory work, was as good a Christian as 
he could be if he were actually united to Christ. 
In a letter to Mr. Shepard, he expressed his 
surprise at the doctrine that an act of grace or 
of obedience should be required of a person 
under a preparatory work, than which, he con- 
ceived none greater could be performed by a 
real Christian ; and he declared that he knew 
no act of self-denial in the gospel like this quiet 
submission to the justice and sovereignty of God, 
irrespective of any assurance of pardon and 
acceptance ; and this too, under the preparatory 
work of humiliation \J 
/ This doctrine, Mr. Firmin thought, must be a 
great stumbling blocli in the way of sinners, and 



312 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

occasion great perplexity in all readers, who 
believed it to be true. And he seems to have 
known one serious person, besides himself, who 
was much troubled by this " constitution of a 
Christian." " Preaching once abroad," he says, 
" I closed up the point in hand, by applying it 
to what Mr. Shepard had delivered, to see how 
these doctrines agreed. A gentleman and a 
scholar meeting me sometime after, gave me 
thanks for the close of my sermon. I asked 
him why ? He told me that he had a maid- 
servant, who was very godly, and reading of 
that particular in Mr. Shepard's book which I 
opposed, she was so cast down, and fell into 
such trouble, that all the Christians who came 
to her, could not quiet her spirit."^ That is, 
this poor, godly servant-maid, could not be freed 
from trouble of mind, occasioned by the doctrine 
that she must be truly convinced of sin, — be 
deeply humbled, — and submit implicitly to the 
will of God, — until she was convinced by Mr. 
Firmin that Shepard, though an eminently 
learned and holy man, was mistaken in rela- 
tion to that matter ! 

Before attempting to suggest an answer to 
these objections, it may be well to remark that 



* Real Christian, Preface, pp 4, 5. 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 313 

the book called the " Sincere Convert," was, 
perhaps, of all Mr. Shepard's works, the least 
satisfactory to himself; not because its funda- 
mental doctrines were doubtful to his own mind, 
but because it had not received that revision 
from his own hand, which every work requires, 
and was, moreover barbarously printed. " It 
was," says Mr. Shepard, in a letter to Mr. 
Firmin, " a collection of notes in a dark town in 
England, which one procuring of me, published 
without my will or privity. I scarce know 
what it contains ; nor do I like to see it, con- 
sidering the many typographical errors, most 
absurd, and the confession of him that published 
it, that it comes out mutilated and altered from 
what was first written."^ And this was said 
in October, 1647, a year after the English pub- 
lisher, in his fourth edition, declared that the 
book had been " corrected and much amended 
by the Author ! " 

Mr. Shepard, however, while he thus almost 
disowned the " Sincere Convert," did not dis- 
avow, but vindicated the doctrine here called in 
question. Though it was a "ragged child," as 
he sometimes called it, it spoke upon this point 
at least, the sentiments of its author. In a letter 



* Real Christian, p. 215. 

VOL. IV. 27 



314 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

to Mr. Firmin, he says, " I do not think this 
(that is, unconditional submission to the will of 
God) is the highest measure of grace, as you 
hint, any further, than as any peculiar work of 
the Spirit is high ; for upon a narrow inquiry, 
it is far different from that readiness of Paul 
and Moses, out of a principle of love to Christ, 
to wish themselves anathematized for Israel's 
sake ; which is a high pitch indeed." And he 
closes his letter thus : " Let my love end in 
breathing out this desire ; preach humiliation. 
Labor to possess men with a sense of wrath to 
come and misery. The gospel consolations and 
grace, which some would have dished out as the 
dainties of the times, and set upon the minis- 
try's table, may possibly tickle and ravish some, 
and do some good to them that are humbled 
and converted already. But if axes and wedges 
withal, be not used to hew and break this rough, 
uneven, bold, yet professing age, I am confident 
the work and fruit of those men's ministry will 
be at best mere hypocrisy ; and they shall find 
it, and see it, if they live to see a few years 
more."^ 

Mr. Shepard here touches the root of the 
matter. A ministry to be truly fruitful, must 



* Real Christian, pp. 19, 56. 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPAHD.315 

show to the people their transgressions; and 
that doctrine that does not humble the sinner 
and require unconditional submission while it 
offers redeeming grace, though it were preached 
by an angel from heaven, is anathematized by 
the gospel. " Some souls can relish none but 
mealy-mouthed preachers, who come with soft, 
and smooth, and toothless words (byssina verba, 
byssinis viris). But these times need humbling 
ministries, and Wessed be God that there are 
any. For where there are no law sermons, 
there will be few gospel lives ; and were there 
more law-preaching by the men of gifts, there 
would be more gospel-walking both by them- 
selves and the people. To preach the law, not 
in a forced, affected manner, but wisely and 
powerfully, together with the gospel, as Christ 
himself was wont to do, is the way to carry on 
all three together, viz. se7ise of 7niscry, —ihe ap- 
plication of the remedy,— diwdi the returns of 
thankfulness and duty. Nor is any doctrine 
more comforting than this humbling way of 
God, if rightly managed.'!*-' 

Mr. Shepard had an able defender of his 
doctrines, as well as a worthy successor to his 
ministry, in Jonathan Mitchel, who drank into 

* Preface lo Shepard's Sermons on Ineffectual Hearinsof ihc Word, 
bj W- Greenhill and S. Mather. 



316 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

the spirit of that theology which exaUs God 
while it abases man ; and carried out in his 
preaching the views of his master. " I have," 
he says, " no greater request for myself and for 
you, than that God would make us see things 
as they really are, and pound our hearts all 
to pieces, and make sin most bitter, and Christ 
most sweet, that we might be both humbled and 
comforted to purpose. An imperfect work of 
the law, and then an imperfecf Avork of the gos- 
pel, is the bane and ruin of these days. Some 
fears and affections, and then some hopes of 
mercy, without finding full rest and satisfac- 
tion in Christ alone, men rest in, and perish.'"^ 

Whatever may be said of the legal tone of 
{ Mr. Shepard's writings, by those who think 
that " the God of terror, the Thunderer from 
Sinai, must fold up his lightnings prettily, and 
muffle his thunder in an easily flowing, poetical 
measure," they doubtless exhibit in a masterly 
manner those distinguishing doctrines of grace 
which have ever been, as they will ever be, the 
true and only foundation of the sinner's peace. 

It may be interesting to the reader to learn 
in what light these writings were regarded when 
they were more known than they are now, by 



r 



* Letter to an Anxioua Enquirer, 1649. 



LIFE OF THOMAS SlIETARD. 317 

men most competent, by profound acquaintance 
with the Scriptures, to judge correctly of their 
merits. ^And first, hear how William Greenhill 
speaks of that " ragged child," in the edition of 
1692. " The Author is one of singular piety, 
inward acquaintance with God, skilled in the 
deceits of men's heart's, able to enlighten the 
dark corners of the little world, and to give satis- 
faction to staggering spirits. The work is 
weighty, quick, and spiritual ; and if thine eye 
be single in perusing it, thou shalt find many 
precious, soul-searching, soul-quickening, soul- 
enriching truths in it ; yea, and be so warned 
and awakened, as that thou canst not but bless 
God for the man and the matter, unless thou be 
possessed with a dumb devil. "^ White, in his 
" Power of godliness," mentions, among the best 
means and helps for acquiring a holy charac- 
ter, together with other books,^-^hepard's "Sin- 
cere Convert," and " Sound Belie\"^r." Steele, 
in his " Husbandman's Calling," advises the 
Christian farmer to purchase some choice books, 
andTead thenT'well, and recommends Shepard's 
'' Sound Believer," as one of peculiar value.! 
Hugli Peters exhorts hir'^ughter to read, 
amonsf other books mentioned in his letter, 



* Preface lo Sincere Convert, p. 9, 

t Letters on the Puritans, by J. Bi Williams, 

27^ 



318 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD 



r.. 



Shepard's " Sincere Convert," for the purpose 
of having her " understanding enlightened with 
the want of Christ and his worth.'"^ Rev. 
James Frazier, of Scotland, in 1738, thus 
speaks of Shepard's writings : " The Lord hath 
blessed the reading of practical writings to me, 
and thereby my heart hath been put into frame, 
and much strength and light gotten ; such as 
Isaac Ambrose, Goodwin, Mr. Gray, and very 
much by Rutherford's above others ; but most of 
all by Mr. Thomas Shepard, of New England, 
his works. He hath, by the same Lord, been .^ 
made the * Interpreter, one of a thousand ;' so 
that under Christ, I have been obliged to his 
writings as much and more than to any man's 
whatever, for awakening, strengthening, and 
enlightening my soul./ The Lord made him a 
well of water to me in all my wilderness 
straits."! .^ Our own Edwards, a man whose 
religious experience was as genuine and as deep 
as that of any divine whom New England or 
the world has "produced, was more indebted to 
Shepard's Sermons on the Parable of the Ten 
Virgins, in tKe preparation of his " Treatise con- 
cerning the Religious Affections," than to any 
other human production whatever, as is shown by,.-^- 

♦ Hanbury's Memorials, 111, 573. 

t Preface to Select Cases, &.C., by T. Prince, 1774. 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD.319 

the fact that out of one^ hundred and thirty-two 
quotations from all authors, upwards of seventy- 
five are from Mr. Shepard. To finish this cat- 
afogue of eminent men who have borne testimony 
to the truth and power of JMr. Shepard's practi- 
cal writings, we repeat what old Mr. Ward of 
Ipswich once said to Giles^ Firmin, his son-in- 
law, respecting one of the prominent character- 
istics of his preaching and writing. " When 
Mr. Shepard comes to deal with hypocrites, he 
cuts so desperately, that men knew not how to 
bear him ; he makes them all afraid that they 
are all hypocrites. But when he comes to deal 
with a tender, humble soul, he gives comfort ^o 
largely that we are afraid to take it." And 
Mr. Firmin himself, says tliat the book which he 
so severely reviews, is, for the most part, " very 
solid, quick, and searching, cutting very sharp- 
ly," and by no means a book for " an unsound 
heart to delight in."^ 

/'-^~T)f the character of Mr. Shepard's personal 
religion, after what has been said in the forego- 
ing account of his life, it is unnecessary to speak 
at length. : The best moral portrait of him 
that we have, is drawn, unconsciously, by him- 
self in his Diary, to which more than one refer- 



* Real Christian, p, 216. 



320 LIFE OF THOMAS SHETARD. 

ence has been made. CJt is a journal, as David 
Brainard justly remarks, in which true religion 
is delineated in a very exact and beautiful man- 
ner; and in reading this expression of his most 
secret feelings, — never, certainlj, designed to be 
made public, — we m'ay see wljat he regarded as 
the religiaa..of a minist^.jgf Christ, — the state 
he endeavored to attain, — and the difficulties he 
encountered in his way to heaven. The humil- 
iation, — the submission to the \yill of God, — the 
deep sense of unworthiness, — the desire to ad- 
vance the glory of God above all selfish consid* 
erations, — which he preaches to others in his 
works, he here shows that he himself experienced, 
the joys which from time to time sprang up in his 
soul in view of redeeming mercy, were evident- 
ly not the self-created comforts of a decejjfed 
heart that had never been truly broken for sin, 
but the peace of God which came to fill a heart 
purified as a temple for the Most High. / It is a 
journal which every minister might study with 
profit; and any one who should find his mind 
responding to these profound utterances of a 
heavenly mind might, without much danger of 
disappointment, hope to be made an instrument 
of promoting the glory of God in the conversion 
of sinners. 

Upon the whole, when we consider the rich 



I 



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LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD.321 

Christian experience which Mr. Shepard at- 
tained, the sacrifices which he cheerfully made 
for the sake of Christ and the gospel, the great 
amount of ministerial and other labor which he 
performed, with feeble health and manifold 
hindrances, the attainments which he made in 
sanctity and the knowledge of divine things, 
the able theological works he produced, and the 
influence, felt even now, which he exerted in 
building up the churches of New England, — 
and all this ere he had passed the meridian of 
life, — we must regard him as one of the bright- 
est ornaments of the church, and hold his mem- 
ory in profound and grateful remembrance. / 

" A sacred man, a venerable priest, 
Who never spake and admiration mist. 
Of good and kind, he the just standard seemed, 
Dear to the best, and by the worst esteemed. 
His wit, his judgment, learning, equal rise, 
Divinely humble, yet divinely wise; 
He triumph'd o'er our souls, and at his will. 
Bid this touch'd passion rise, and that be still ; 
Releas'd our souls, and made them soar above, 
Wing'd with divine desires, and flames of heavenly love," 



322 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD 



The following is a very brief account of Mr. 
Skepard's Family and Writings. 

Mr. Shepard left three sons : 

Thomas, born April 5, 1635, at London ; 
graduated at Harvard College 1653 ; ordained 
Pastor of the church in Charlestown April 13, 
1659; died of small pox, December 22, 1677, 
aged 43. 

Samuel, born at Cambridge, Oct. 18, 1641 ; 
graduated at Harvard College, 1658 ; ordained 
over the church at Rowley, as its third Pastor, 
1665; died April 7, 1668, in the 27th year of 
his age. 

Jeremiah, born Aug. 11, 1648; graduated at 
Harvard College, 1669; ordained at Lynn, Oct. 
6, 1679; died June 2, 1720, aged 72, after a 
ministry of forty-one years. 
^ Mr. Shepard's third wife, Margaret Boradel, 
after his death, married Jonathan Mitchel, his 
successor in the church of Cambridge. \ 

/'^ Anna, the daughter of Thomas Shepard of 
Charlestown, was married, in 1682, to Daniel 
Quincy. They had one son, named John 
Quincy, born July 21, 1689. Elizabeth, the 
daughter of John Quincy, married William 
Smith, the minister of Weymouth. Abigail, 



LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 323 

the daughter of William Smith, married John 
Adams, afterwards President of the United 
States ; and was the mother of John Quincy 
Adams, who is thus a descendant in the sixth 
generation, from Thomas Shepard of Cam- 
bridofe.^^.. 

. Of Mr. Shepard's books, the children of his 
mind, the following is believed to be a tolerably 
correct list, with the dates, so far as known, of 
their respective editions. / 

3 Theses SABBATiciE ; Quarto, London, 1649. 
2 Answer to Ball ; Quarto, London, 1648. 

9 Select Cases Resolved, London, and 
Edinburgh, 1648. 

7 New England's Lamentation for Old Eng- 
land's Errors ; London, 1645. 

6 Church Membership of Children ; Cam- 
bridge, 1663. 

10 Caution against Spiritual Drunken- 
ness, Sermon. 

11 Subjection to Christ in all his Ordi- 
nances, &c., the best way to preserve liberty. 

12 Ineffectual Hearing of the Word. 

4 Sincere Convert, London. Several edi- 
tions, — the last, London, 1692. 

5 Sound Believer. 

1 Sermon on the Parable of the Ten 
Virgins, Folio, London, 1695. 

♦ Chronicles of Massachusetts, p. 558. Note. 



324 LIFE OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

13 Singing of Psalms a Gospel Ordinance, 
1647. 

8 Clear Sunshine of the Gospel breaking 
UPON the Indians, London, 1648. 

Select Cases Resolved ; London, 1648. 

14 Meditations and Spiritual Experiences. 

A Diary from November, 1640, to December, 
1641. 

First Principles of the Oracles of God. 
London and Edinburgh, 1648. 

The Saint's Jewell, 16mo., London, 1692. 

9 The Liturgical Considerator ; in reply 
to Dr. Gauden, London, 1661. 

The Bible used by Mr. Shepard is in the pos- 
session of the Rev. William Jenks, D. D. It 
has the Hebrew of the Old Testament, without 
points, and the Greek of the New. It exhibits 
marks of use. On the title-page, at the bottom, 
after the name of a previous possessor, is Shep- 
ard's name, an autograph thus : Thomas Shep- 
ard. ip jiroii \'adi. Immanuel. For this account 
of Shepard's Bible I am indebted to the kind- r 
ness of Rev. Dr. Jenks. J 



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